Final Fantasy 8: Complete Junction
by SDI hyper
Summary: Sequel to ‘Final Fantasy 8: Junction’,After the triumphant return from Time Compression, they accidentally brought something back with them. Squall x Ifrit, Zell x Bahamut,Ifrit x ?.Nida x Chocoboy Yaoi,Slash.
1. Default Chapter

inal Fantasy 8: Complete Junction

By SDI Hypervelocity

Sequel to 'Final Fantasy 8: Junction', After the triumphant return from Time Compression, they accidentally brought something back with them. Squall x Ifrit, Zell x Bahamut, Ifrit x ?. Nida x Chocoboy Yaoi, Slash.

Chapter 1: Return.

The effects of Time Compression slowly began to wear off, allowing Zell to sigh with relief as he ended up into his room. Not a bad place to end up after going through all of that, not a bad place at all.

As soon as he was safely back in his bed room, Zell noticed that Carbuncle had made himself scarce.

Even after not seeing Zell for 4 years he was willing to wait even longer, he'd completely disappeared.

Looking at Bahamut standing near the bed, he silently thanked Carbuncle. Right before he rushed Bahamut and nearly jumped on to him, sending both of them falling on to the bed. Stifling any cries of surprise from the Dragon with a kiss.

" What happened to you?" Zell asked worriedly, he'd never been so worried in his life, he didn't know if he got hurt, or was stuck someplace or worse.

"Hn…..Well, I don't remember much……" Bahamut thought back, trying to remember as much about it as he could. After that fatal blow from Ultimecia he couldn't remember much, it was fuzzy, and the only thing he knew for sure was that he drifted in and out of conciseness frequently.

"Well it doesn't matter. But I have to give it to you. You did a number on that monster back there." Zell smiled. He didn't feel like smiling though, after being that worried for so long, finally being relieved was like opening the flood gates. "I...thought you were dead..." He wrapped his arms around Bahamut and buried his face in to his chest, "I just kept on looking, I was hoping that you didn't"

"You were really that worried about me?" Bahamut lifted his head off of the bed, green eyes looking down questioningly at Zell.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Zell stared at Bahamut for a moment, he couldn't believe he was even being asked this question. "Are you serious?"

Was he ever not serious? "Yes." Bahamut asked innocently.

Zell climbed up on to his knees above Bahamut, his hands mounted on the dragon's chest to hold himself up. As much as he wanted to respond immediately, he didn't, he be gain to think instead. And he realized he should have before, it was staring him right in the face, literally. All he had to do was look in to Bahamut's eyes and tell that the GF still had his reluctance towards Zell, his reluctance towards human's in general.

Zell knew why, he'd seen it in time compression. Everything that had happened to Bahamut back when the deep sea research center was operational, what those people did...How could he blame him? "Bahamut...I'm not like those other guys."

"I know that." Bahamut said.

"Yeah, I guess you do but..." Zell paused, smiling almost nervously "...It's like you don't trust me or something."

"I trust you." Bahamut told him. "Of course I trust you."

"Well..." Zell's nervous smile grew wider. "More like..."

Bahamut stared up at him questioningly, he could tell that Zell was stalling but what ever he was trying to say he wanted to do it enough to keep going. But at this rate they would never get anywhere. "Zell." Bahamut placed his hands on Zell's shoulder and abruptly pushed him.

"Whoa!" Zell let out a surprised sound as Bahamut pinned him down, climbing on to his knees above him just as he'd done before.

"Your stalling." Bahamut said plainly, noting and memorizing how Zell's expression looked when he was confused. "What are you trying to say?"

Zell couldn't help but laugh at the abruptness "Strait to the point as always Bahamut." After that his expression became more sober, he managed to keep looking into Bahamut's eyes though no matter how much nervousness tempted him to look away. "It's like your afraid of something, like your afraid of me in some way, like I'm gonna do something to hurt you."

Bahamut didn't respond at first, almost apprehensive with his answer.

"Well, are you?" Zell asked. "You told me when we first met that you afraid of humans...is that it?"

"That's not it." Bahamut shook his head, his voice suddenly becoming firmer then it had been before.

"Then what?" Zell placed his elbows back, propping himself up on to them to elevate himself off of the bed slightly, just enough to be face to face with Bahamut.

"I was told that that GFs are just tools to be used." Bahamut explained, still holding his same tone and expression.

"By those guys in the research center?"

Bahamut nodded "And that's what I was, just a tool for them to do what ever test they pleased with"

"Wait." Zell stopped him, he just realized something, more like a question that just appeared...Exactly why wasn't the Research Facility operational anymore?... "...Nothing..."

"For that reason I didn't want to become a GF."

"So...is that?" Zell asked reluctantly. "You didn't want to be a GF."

Bahamut pressed his finger against Zell's forehead chastisingly "You assume things too quickly." Bahamut reprimanded. "If I didn't want to do it then I wouldn't have."

Now Zell got it "I get it now, you think I'm going to do something to hurt you like those people did?"

"No."

"Well not like that but..." Zell paused "You just don't...trust me completely yet..."

"Zell, I trust you." Bahamut told him, leaning forward to give him a small kiss, then pulling back just enough for him to speak. "I trust you." He leaned forward into another kiss, letting his tongue roam over every part of Zell's mouth. "I trust you...Do you thrust me?" Bahamut reluctantly pulled back, laying on to Zell's body and wrapping his arms around the boy protectively.

It was warm and comfortable, Zell closed his eyes and was forcibly pushed down by the dragon's weight. "Hell yeah I trust you, you'd you ask?"

"I've noticed it, it's like your afraid of something." Bahamut pulled Zell's head comfortably underneath his chin, "What is it? What are you afraid of?"

Zell relaxed into Bahamut's embrace, wrapping his arms around Bahamut's neck with a sigh. "Well...your not exactly favoring to humans...and you did say you never wanted to be a GF..."

Bahamut pulled back from the boy, placing his hands above Zell's shoulders and looking directly into his blue eyes. "Zell, I'm not just going to leave." he said firmly "I _want_ to be your Guardian Force."

Zell smiled, reaching up and slipping one hand behind Bahamut's head and pulling him closer "Alright Bahamut. If you stop keeping that think in the back of your head that think I'm gonna end up being like those other guys. I'll stop thinking you'll just get sick of me and leave." He closed the small gap between them, pressing their lips together for a third time before Bahamut could respond to it. A junction did go both ways.

Bahamut pressed his mouth against Zell's neck, running his tongue across the soft flesh tainted with the taste of salt from sweat. "Deal." He agreed, pressing his hand on Zell's chest where the tattered shirt lay.

"Bahamut..." Zell let out a deep breath, the soft touches felt extra sensitive on his battle abused skin. Bahamut pushed open the black collar of the shirt, leaving soft kisses across his collar bone where a bruise lay from past battles.

"Hmm..." Bahamut pushed the collar down father to father examine the marking. "I wish I could have been there to protect you..."

Zell open one eye and smirked, that's what he loved about Bahamut. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine..."

Bahamut gently pressed his finger against the bruise with a feather soft touch casting a cure spell with soft words. With a small green glow, the bruise healed completely under the spell's effects, and Bahamut laid a soft kiss on the new skin, drawing a moan from the boy. That felt so amazing...

Bahamut held on to the collar of Zell's shirt, ripping off the battle worn fabric and tossing the remains aside. This revealed a whole host of sash marks and cuts along with more bruises. "Your really injured." He gently pressed his hands to Zell's chest, curing away each one of the various injures followed by soft kisses.

Zell rested his hands behind his head, one knee drawn up in relaxation as Bahamut worked down his torso, curing every wound. Bahamut held on to Zell's waist, slipping his fingers beneath the waist band and pulling them down to his ankles. He paused when he saw a large gash dipping past his waist halfway down his pelvis on to his left leg.

Bahamut followed with another cure spell, running his tongue along the spot where the scar had been. "Ahaa..." Zell moaned with a light spasm from such a delicate distraction on a sensitive area. He flinched lightly.

Bahamut moved downward to Zell's now fully hard erection making itself almost painfully evident, wrapping his arms around the boy's waist before wrapping his mouth around the warm flesh. His tongue moved knowingly about Zell's member, swirling around the base, running along the bottom in teasing licks with each suck.

"Uha...Bahamut..." Zell's hand came to rest on his chest pounding with a racing heart, his heartbeat always seemed to increases to unprecedented speeds when ever Bahamut touched him...Zell's half lidded eyes drifted inanely to a sight directly in front of him, it was Bahamut's tail. Which Bahamut couldn't stop from shifting around happily...which gave him an impish idea.

"!" Bahamut flinched a little when he felt Zell grabbed his tail with out warning, immediately lifting his head in surprise "Ahh!" Bahamut, despite his best efforts, was unable to stop himself from making a surprisingly weak cry when Zell brushed his thumb over the tip of his tail.

His was surprisingly sensitive in that area, Bahamut barley used the appendage since no one would be stupid enough to grab it in battle. If they held on to it, they were setting themselves up for a Mega Flare. Or at lest a swift kick in the face and a smash between his wings.

Zell couldn't help but grin when he saw Bahamut's reaction, he lifted the tail into his mouth, causing Bahamut's rhythmic movements to become suddenly erratic with a loud gasp. "Z-Zell..." Bahamut moaned a little, repressing the better part of it with his self control being pushed to the limit.

He couldn't help but suck harder with his body tensing farther by the second. The new found pressure was enough to push Zell to his limits, he nearly bit down on Bahamut's tail, his hands clinching at anything in range. "Bahamut..!" Zell moaned loudly, sending a spurt of cum into Bahamut's awaiting mouth.

Zell was left panting, staring at the ceiling with his heart pounding, a smile etching on to his features and laugh threatening to come forth. "Tail huh, I can't believe I never thought of that."

Bahamut's tail slid away from Zell and on to the floor, safely out of the way of the boy's hand. A small growl of light annoyment coming from his mouth.

Zell couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud this time "Don't worry, just because I found your weakness doesn't make you any less of a big bad dragon."

"Meh."

! - ! - !

"You sure it's alright to just leave the garden there?" Cho asked, he sat in the cockpit of the Ragnaork in one of the co-pilot seats beside Nida, who was piloting the ship.

"Sure, It's in good hands at FH." Nida reassured the boy, he was headed to the orphanage to pick up Squall and Rinoa.

"Uh... Alright." Cho peered over the dashboard anxiously, staring at the passing landscape. He always wanted to ride in this thing since he saw Squall and his team doing so, that was of course after they didn't need his Chocobo forest to get around places. It was amazing, just has he expected. "Hey! Let me drive!" The boy asked excitedly, leaning toward Nida anticipatingly .

"What? Are you crazy?" Nida nearly laughed, he couldn't...no, correction, he didn't want to see the boy piloting a fully armed ship. Cho the misfit scam artist and large weaponry just was not a good combination. "No way."

"Come on, we're high enough in the air so that you can catch me if I do something wrong." Cho reasoned. "Please?" He looked up at the older boy with the most pleading eyes he could make, how innocently he looked at the moment...it was too much for Nida to resist.

"Damn..." Nida sighed, clinching the throttle uneasily. "Tell you what, I'll teach how to fly it later."

"Really? Cool!" Cho shouted excitedly, he was so happy at the moment he was almost tempted to hug Nida, and would have if he wasn't flying at the moment.

"Hey Cho?" Nida's eyes veered away from the windshield inanely toward the boy, this whole situation bringing up a question in his mind.

His real name was Maru, but everyone knew him as Chocoboy, and Nida usually called him Cho. "Huh?"

"What was it like going through Time compression?" It was something Nida had been dieing to ask, and would have a long time ago. Unfortunately Cho had been reluctant to talk about the issue until Nida had forgotten about the question all together, going to find Squall after having gone through it refreshed his memory.

Cho had also ,unintentionally, gone threw Time Compression notably during their rescue of Laguna and Ellone from the Lunatic Pandora. Besides Squall's team, he appeared to be the only one who made it through, or at lest came back to tell the tail.

Cho rubbed his head nervously and shuttered at the thought. "Oh man, it was really creepy! The place was empty, every city was blocked. The only thing there was were monsters, really strong ones..."

"Really? The cities were blocked? By what?" Nida asked, able to see the Centra continent had just rolled over the horizon, they were almost there.

"Some kinda spell of something." The boy said with a shrug. "I almost didn't make it."

Nida reached over and ruffled the boy's hair lightly. "I'm glad you survived, sounded hard... Did you see Squall?"

"Uh-huh, he asked me to get a Chocobo for him so he could find…._this_ ship." That made Cho really want to fly it, he couldn't wait for Nida to teach him. He was getting more excited by the second.

"What are you thinking about." Nida asked in an expectant voice.

"What?" Chocoboy asked defensively.

"You always get that look on your face when your thinking, and it never turns out good."

"Come on, I'm not thinking of anything bad."...Looking at Nida, he had to rephrase that, "Well not _too_ bad." he said thoughtfully,

"13 year olds." Nida sighed.

"Nope! I'm 14 now, remember my birthday was yesterday." Cho's voice was hinting something.

"Yeah I remember." Nida rolled his eyes, "Great, a horny 14-year-old, is there anything worse?" Nida sighed, though it held playful undertones, almost happy ones. He couldn't help but smile.

"Not as bad as a horny 17-year-old." Cho shot back, followed by a laugh he couldn't hold in after saying something like that to someone like Nida.

Nida could see Cho had that look on his face again, there was no doubt in what he was thinking about this time.

Chapter one finished, I'm happy with it. I thought about making it a songfic.


	2. Chapter 2: My first love

Chapter 2: My first love

! - ! - !

_**My First Love by Avant**_

! - ! - !

After returning to the garden, Squall and Rinoa separated temporarily, Squall heading to his old room, while Rinoa went to find and check on somethings. Which they both found harder then expected to do, they could barely get 2 feet from each other because of the 4 year wait for their return, they were instantly bombarded with excited students at the door.

Squall didn't exactly feel like it and voiced his feelings about it immediately in the most forceful way he could think of saying it, forcing everyone to leave him alone and clear out of his way. He was severely tired, he'd probably pass out for a few days if he was left alone, and parts of him still hurt from battle, the last thing he want to do was deal with people.

Nida had informed him that all of his friends made it back safely, more or less, so that he wouldn't have to worry about it, and he didn't. After all of that time he finally didn't have anything to worry about or do, if he did there was no way in hell he was doing it right now.

And it felt great, he never thought doing nothing would feel _this_ good.

'Griever? Why did you come back with me?' Squall finally asked as he was falling face first in to his bed back at his dorm, after checking to see if everything was as he left it last of course.

(……I'm not sure.) Griever didn't sound as if he was thinking about it much. Maybe he was tired of being alone, maybe he just missed Ifrit. In reality Griever never left, he'd been junctioned to Squall for whoever knows how long with out neither of them, or at least Squall, not knowing. Which would explain a few things.

_**Silhouette, of a perfect frame,  
Shadows of your smile, will always remain (Will always remain).**_

Squall had a memory he could barely remember, he never thought of it anymore and gave up on thinking of it a long time ago. All he remembered about it now was that it involved Griever, which would explain his ideology on the GF, and the ring that held some sentimental value as well as the chain he hardly ever took off unless he had to. Despite his long since giving up on the memory he wished he could have remember what it was now.

Or he could ask Griever about it, as of now that memory seemed like only a dream, maybe if he asked Griever...no….he wasn't up for it right now and he doubt Griever would be either assessing the previous answer he'd gotten from a question. Especially since the GF just unjunctioned himself, opting to be alone for the time being.

Ifrit unjunctioned himself also, appearing above Squall who had settled on to back and didn't appear as if he would be getting up soon. They looked at each other, "I didn't think I'd see this place again." Ifrit said with relieved sigh, he hadn't become attached to this place, on the contrary he though the room was much to small for his liking. But...he did have a sense of familiarity, since this place was so tied in with Squall.

Squall only gave him a small smirk, almost mocking him, one of the most powerful GFs in the world had become attached to one place he didn't even and one person, a human no less.

_**Beginners love, soon fades away  
We go on...  
I Will always say...**_

"_Your_ becoming sentimental?" Squall said with a small, weak laugh. When he first encountered Ifrit he was strong, fierce and ruthless in battle. He'd seen how powerful Ifrit had become with a child like potential when he let the GF handle a few battles by himself, usually when Squall tired or injured. Ifrit could probably take down anything if he tried, and _would_ if they tried to hurt Squall.

Squall had seen it on occasion during Time Compression, Ifrit was fully capable of killing in a brutal manner if it came down to it. The thought of someone like that becoming sentimental was humorous. To Squall at lest.

"I, ah…" Ifrit rubbed his head, thinking about it, maybe he was becoming sentimental. His fingers gently begin to shift around the golden ear ring in his pointed ears, finally responding "Define Sentimental." He said, wanting to know what Squall considered to be sentimental.

"Think about it, during Time compression you wanted to get back here, why _here_? You could have picked anyplace in the world, but why this spot?" Squall asked him, sitting up just enough to take off his jacket and toss it aside. He didn't care about neatness at this point. "Why not the fire cave or someplace like that?"

"Hmm…" Ifrit thought about it, why did he pick this spot? No...there was no use thinking about it, he already knew the answer. "I though I could find you here."

Ifrit folded his arms across his chest, looking toward the shaded window near Squall's bed. "You didn't think about a place when you where in Time Compression?" he asked.

"…….Not really."

**(Long as I live)  
Long as I live, you will be my, (my first love).**

Not really? What did he mean by not really? Ifrit subconsciously quirked an eyebrow "Not really?"

"I tried to get to the Fire cave." Squall admitted. The fire cave, where he first saw Ifrit for the first time.

Oddly enough that wasn't what he though of when he thought of the fire cave. Squall could remember studying in the library for hours on Ifrit to prepare for his test, but he really couldn't find anything that was helpful and decided to go on instinct. That memory stood out for some reason, it wasn't like it was an important one, but for some reason Squall couldn't forget it either. It was strange how that worked out.

Interesting..."So, did you make it?" Ifrit asked.

_**Oh baby you and only you.  
(Long as I live)**_

Squall looked back at him, he really didn't expect a follow up question. So, finally regaining the strength to move, Squall pushed his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, taking the time to peel off his shirt before he leaned forward and set his hands in his lap. "No." He shook his head, the memory of that distortion he'd seen of Ifrit in the fire cave on his way back. "I ended up at Edea's house." He said, lifting his head toward the GF. "What about you? Where were you during all of this?"

"I ended up in an ocean..." Not exactly a fond memory, but one he had to think about anyway. "Come to think of it, I think it was near the Deep sea research center." Ifrit sat down on the bed beside Squall, his head titled upward thoughtfully.

Squall laid his head on to Ifrit shoulder, feeling Ifrit wrapped his strong arms around him. He couldn't help but smile when he felt this, when he was lost in Time Compression, despite other things happening around him, it was all he could think about. Being wrapped in Ifrit's warm embrace, letting himself feel like a child being held by someone larger and stronger.

Squall leaned against Ifrit, closing his eyes.

_**Long as I live (my first love) you will be my first love.  
And I choose you again.**_

Ifrit leaned over and gave him a light kiss on the forehead, feeling Squall hugging his waist. That's when Squall remembered something he'd been meaning to ask Ifrit. "Ifrit?"

"Yes?"

"Those bangles on your wrist, where did they come from?" Squall asked, staring at the golden bracelet on Ifrit's wrist questioningly. He never really paid attention to them before, that was until that whole thing in Time Compression.

"I'm not sure exactly, it was along time ago." Ifrit spoke in a forlorn voice, a look that told Squall he was seriously considering it, trying to think back with no luck. Squall lifted his arms to Ifrit's neck and pulled him down in to another kiss, telling him to forget about it for the moment.

Their tongues mingled together between their mouths, meeting in an another awkward kiss. Squall leaned upward, pushing closer to Ifrit.

**I'll keep an old Candy-Coated Valentine,  
Memories of you, you when you were mine.**

Ifrit pulled back when the need for air became to great for the boy, leaving him panting, heat ensuing. He couldn't help but smile when he looked at that expression on Squall's face, he couldn't resist bringing his hand to Squall's chin and lifting his head to study his features. He stared down into those brown eyes with golden ones holding a tent of unknown interest of some unknown thought in the back of his mind. Squall recognized that look, Ifrit always had that look when he was thinking about something. "What is it?"

**A tarnished ring on a tarnished chain,  
Times keep changing come sun or rain.**

Ifrit still held a lot of angst, if he could call it that, over the events that had just transpired, he was angry at himself. Squall could feel it, he could see it, something just wasn't right with him right now. "Ifrit? What's wrong?"

"...Were you sacred?" He asked simply.

Squall nodded "Yes...I know you wanted to protect me, and I know you don't feel like it, but you did."

Ifrit shifted his eyes away with distaste. "I wasn't there, how could I have protected you?"

"Because you saved my life." Squall smiled "More then once...So stop beating your self up over it." Squall pressed his head against Ifrit's and kissed him again before he could respond. Ifrit stared down at the boy questingly...maybe Squall was right, he was thinking about this to much.

_**(Long as I Live)  
Long as I live, you will be (my first love)  
My first love and my only love.**_

"!" Squall couldn't help but blush with embarrassment at what happened next, maybe it was out of tiredness or lack of attention. Squall slipped when he leaned forward, landing on his stomach in Ifrit's lap after nearly falling off the bed completely. "Uufff!"

He was pretty sure Ifrit was amused by it, he could practically feel him smiling at him. Squall's eyes narrowed at his own clumsiness.

**(Long as I live)  
Long as I live (my first love).**

"Heh." Ifrit let out a small laugh, pressing his hands against Squall's back lightly. He pressed down on the tense expanse of Squall's body, his fingers clinching at the rim of his white t-shirt before pulling over Squall's head. A sigh forced it's way from Squall's mouth as he felt the increasingly warm hands against his skin, massaging the taut mussels that seemed as if they were tense enough to inhibit movement.

His eyes inanely drifted closed as he felt himself relaxing, completely forgetting his former embarrassment. "..." The warm fingers trailed down spine, heat intensifying by the second.

**Ohhh, you will always be my,  
Oh, be my first love.**

Squall only smirked when he felt Ifrit's hand reach the waist band of his pants, the other slipping under Squall's side to unbutton the fabric and the remove them with one swift pull that nearly tore them apart. "Uha..." Squall winced slightly when he felt Ifrit slip a signal finger into his entrance, thrusting the warm appendage into his body roughly, stretching the tight ring muscles with circular movements.

**(Long as I Live)  
Long as I live, you will be (my first love)**

**My first love and my only love.  
(Long as I live)**

Ifrit pushed in a second finger, followed by a series of hard thrust, forcing an audible breath from Squall with each one. Squall's hands clinched Ifrit's leg, a loud moan emitting from his repressed throat, his hardening erection pressing against Ifrit's inner thigh now wet with pre-cum that persisted out of the head.

A small drop of sweat fell from Squall's forehead from all of the heat Ifrit was generated, the heat Ifrit always created.

**Long as I live (my first love).  
Ohhh, you will always be my,  
Oh, be my first love. **

Ifrit slipped his other hand past Squall's side and trailed down the firm torso. He wrapped his hand around Squall's cock, sliding along the pre-cum soaked flesh with a tight grip and more heat then Squall could stand.

"Ifrit!" Squall inanely arched upward, one last thrust of the fingers driving inside of him and the heat pumping his rigid member fervently, he came with a loud outcry and a his seed streaming from the head of his cock. Spilling his seed messily on the floor and down the side of the his bed. "!"

**A tarnished ring on a tarnished chain**

**times keep changing come sun or rain.**

Squall released his tight grip on Ifrit's leg, noting that it had to have been painful to a degree. With his mouth open partially taking in heavy breaths, Squall pushed himself out of Ifrit's lap, feeling the small traces of light heat as he rose on to his hands and knees. His head hung down low in fatigue and a sleepy expression forming on his face that Ifrit couldn't help but smirk when he saw it.

He closed his eyes, just to remember that image.

**(Long as I Live)  
Long as I live, you will be (my first love)**

Squall abruptly pushed him back on to the bed when he saw the GF beginning to zone out, laying down sleepily on his chest.

"Tired?" Ifrit asked.

Squall gave a silent agreement between breaths.

Ifrit instinctively wrapped his arms around Squall, one had drifting up to the boy's head to burry itself into the messy brown hair.

He couldn't help thinking about how he almost thought he'd never feel _this_ again, never hold Squall in his arms again in such an instinctively protective manner. He almost laughed at himself as he watched Squall fall asleep, drifting unconscious seeming after a few seconds. It wasn't surprising, not after more then 24 hours of sleep deprivation.

**My first love and my only love.  
(Long as I live)**

Ifrit laid silently for a few moments, golden eyes set on Squall sleep in his arms. When looking at Squall he couldn't help but think of Griever, they were so a like in so many ways, but strongly different in others.

He used to be involved with him, but Griever wasn't the type to stay in one place, or with him for that matter.

Griever never really said much, but was bluntly clear when he wanted sex. Ifrit wasn't exactly happy with the nature of his relationship with Griever, it was an odd one to say the least, he hated it at times. But looking back, Griever wasn't completely one-sided, from time to time he did show a little bit of himself.

**Long as I live (my first love).  
Ohhh, you will always be my,  
Oh, be my first love.**

Ifrit smiled almost nervously, wondering why Griever was back again, completely aware of the fact the nature of his being here was mostly about Squall. 'This is gonna be fun…..' He mumbled to himself sarcastically, his ears twitching lightly from a long since developed nervous habit..

That was Griever's fault, but on the other hand a lot of things about him was Griever's fault.


	3. Chapter 3: The youngest SeeD

Chapter 3: Waiting.

Carbuncle was in the only place he thought to go, it was the just about the only place he could go or even remembered how to get to. 4 years of unmoving nearly complete isolation wasn't good for the sense of direction. He could have went in to the training center, but he didn't feel like fighting right now. He could have gone in to the Library, but didn't feel like being alone. The cafeteria…he wasn't hungry. Carbuncle was always welcome in cockpit, but Nida wasn't up there and just as before he didn't feel like being alone.

So after a short walk, he went to the only other place he really felt like going.

"Carbuncle?" Cho opened the door for the small GF, sure to close it behind him. "What are you doing here?" Cho asked, sitting down on a chair in the small living room area of _his_ room, he was proud of that face.

Cho had to be...no Cho was the only junior classmen to have his own room. After much begging and numbers break ins of his office to avoid the scheduling process, he eventually got to Cid, who also denied him. And when he asked what he would have to do to get one, Cid told him that he would have to become a SeeD.

And of course, Chocoboy said "Let me take the test!" over and over on numerous days despite Nida's discouragement and chastising of it until Cid was forced to give in so the boy would leave him alone. So he set a date, mainly just to humor him, and Cho took it seriously, and of course asked Nida to help him study for it. Nida didn't exactly take him serous about it either, but if he wanted to learn more why stop him?

So under Nida's coaching, he learned everything he needed to know about the test in a week. He didn't sleep once during the 7 day period, but he did study hard and was diligent in review. Nida of course disapproved of the no sleeping and eventually forced him, physically, to go to bed.

After a full day of rest, Cho asked Carbuncle to train him physically. The GF obviously didn't want to at first, but eventually he agreed to do so, unable to resist the cute and innocent face he was so good at faking. Until he found out that the test was in a week from then and told Chin he couldn't do anything in that short period of time. And there was no way he was going to let him junction.

So the test came, and Cho took the written part of the test……and passed much to the surprise of everyone, especially the upper classmen. He was the first person at Cid's door the next morning, more accurately on his desk because he'd broken in again, and by then he had forgotten why he was doing all of this work in the first place.

He had a new goal by then, he was trying to prove to everyone that if he'd come this far that he could do it, he was a fast learner and easily finished the first part of the test. Cid figured that if he had gotten this far, why not let him finish, though he doubted that Chocoboy could get a low level GF. So instead he gave him a relatively simple surveillance mission.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

5 months earlier...

"Hey Nida, Guess what!" Cho ascended the lift from the third floor to the cock pit with so much excitement that he could barely stand still, the moment the lift docked with the next level he ran forward and hugged Nida from behind. Almost with enough force to not him over.

"Whoa!" Nida glanced over his shoulder questioningly, managing not to run the garden into something from being thrown off balance so suddenly. "Hmm, What?" Nida looked over the boy with a once over look before returning his gaze outward past the windshield. As of now he was docking the garden in a cleared area near the ruins of Triberia Garden, a place surrounded by mountains and forest, hard to maneuver around for anyone else not as skilled as Nida was.

"I passed! I passed the written part of the test!" He shouted excitedly.

He wasn't surprised, not after he watched Cho work so hard trying. "Good Job." He reached back and ruffled the boy's head lightly with a proud smile appearing across his face "I knew you could do it." Nida said congratulating, finally setting the garden down in a reasonable spot.

"Now I have to get a lower level GF, Cid's finding one for me right now." Cho said, Nida could hear the undertone in his voice, he knew that under tone...

"Ok." Nida sighed. "What are you planning?" Nida let go of the throttle and turned around, resting his hands on his hips.

"Nothing….--" Cho said innocently, looking up at Nida with an accenting voice.

Nida looked down at him expectantly, the Chocoboy may have been able to fool someone else but not him, he knew him to well. He just stared silently.

Cho dropped his head, he couldn't get anything past Nida. "Nothing big, I serous this time. All I'm going to do is get a GF myself." Cho said with a sigh.

"Huh? You know where one is?"

Cho nodded.

"Do you know how dangerous this is?"

"It's not really, the GF is a Chocobo."

"Huh? You have to be kidding me." Nida shook his head, leaving the throttle with his job done for the moment and heading down the lift with Cho.

"Yeah and…. Can you come with me. I need somebody to over see the test." Cho pleaded.

Nida really didn't have a choice, he couldn't let Cho go by himself, it may have been dangerous. Nida nodded a silent agreement.

From there it was fairly simple, he knew the Chocobo, and being the expert he easily got it to junction. That wasn't all, the Chocobo had friends, a Mog and a Moomba though none of them were really actually GFs. But what Nida and Cid didn't know wouldn't hurt them, he just had to make it look like he was junctioning. And to Cid's amazement Cho had come so far, he had to let him go on the next field exam.

But the fact remained that he wasn't old enough to go on something this dangerous, there was no way in good conscience that Cid could. So after a few days of thinking and maneuvering schedules he assigned him to a group with Nida of course as a squad leader, he wouldn't have usually let someone already a SeeD go with the cadets directly. But this was an unusual situation.

The mission was to go to Deling and report on the status of the Galbadian army post sorceress control. Of course there was high hostility of Balamb Garden and there would be opposition, it was extremely dangerous going in to center of the Galbadian regime. And there would be a high numbers of guards and solders, more so then ever before since Galbadian seemed to be hiding something.

Luckily it wasn't their job to go into to much detail about Galbadian affairs, that would be the job of candidates older and preferably stronger.

Nida, by himself with only Cho to look after per instructions, were to be simple scouts, scout out an area before a team moved and gather information. Simple, and at times not remotely safe.

"We don't have a hard task, sneak in, look around, get out. We shouldn't have to fight much either." Nida explained, looking around the bright lights of the city. It was dark, or it would have been in any other city, but the constant lights made it bright enough to see clearly.

"Alright! You lead the way." Cho nodded excitedly, he was anxious and ready and willing to do anything Nida said. Which made him block out a few thoughts. 'Come on! Focus Damnit, you can think about that later. YESSSS! I'm gonna be a SeeD!' Chocoboy thought to himself, jumping excitedly. He'd heard from Nida that the key to this test was to follow orders, follow orders until there was no way possible to do so.

"The first place we scout is the Presidential Palace." Nida said." "The plan is simple, we go around the side gate and climb up from there. Then we survey the front yard and the first floor and report back to Team B. Got it?"

"Yes!"

After that Nida led Cho the side of the gate where the security would be strategically the weakest.

Nida, being just tall enough, jumped up and grabbed on to the top of the brick wall, pulling his body up to about shoulder length just enough so that he could see over the barrier to the other side. "Hmm..." His eyes rolled over the area inquiringly, he didn't see any guards in the vicinity, nor anything else potentially treating. Nida glanced back at the boy "It's all clear."

Nida let go of the wall and jumped down, somehow managing to be eerier quite during the whole process. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Cho waited for Nida to knelt down, then with a clumsily skilled agility he climbed on to Nida's shoulders, then dived over the concrete barrier, landing stealthily on the other side. "Nida?"

"I'm right behind you." A few seconds later, Nida came down on Cho's side, taking another quick survey around the area before proceeding. "Alright Cho, just follow me so we can get this over with and move on to the next area."

Even with the most careful proceedings around the east of the Presidential Palace they could only make it half way across the court yard before a fiend attacked them. Which made Nida mentally kick himself. _That's_ why there were no solders around out here, monsters were guarding the place. Not a bad choice of fiends either, this one was a Wendigo which could be hell for beginners, like Cho and himself.

"Uh…" Cho rubbed his head and took a smile back nervously. "What do we do?"

Nida may have been able to fight one, not easily but he could, but Cho couldn't. Even worse yet looked as if this whole place was filled with monsters just as strong or worse. The Galbadian army couldn't handle some of these.

"We retreat for now, there's no way we can handle these things. Besides, we've gotten enough details on this place." Nida finally told him.

So they retreated, reporting back to Team B as they were supposed and relaying that there what types of monsters guarding the front gate and first floor. After that the next assignment was to scout the sewers for a possible underground entrances into rumored Galbadian hidden bases, the had to enter from the from the Clock tower.

"All we have to do is go look around." Nida held on to the sides of the railings and slid down the ladder and into the tunnels of the sewers bellow the city. His voice immediately began to echo off the walls, mixing with the distortion of running water flowing through a channel of trenches laying in the center of the tunneled structure. "That's _all_, don't mess with the monsters, that might alert any body that may be down there. Got it?" Nida asked, Getting an obedient nod from Cho.

They had come down right next to a wall, leaving only one way for them to go. The first thing they saw was a water mill being turned by the current of the water in the trench, a wooden bridge spanning the channel leading from one side of the tunnel to the other.

They avoided a few Creeps coming at them from the shadows along the dimly lit walls, as well as a few Flan in their path. Cho moved as silently as possible but quick enough to keep up with Nida's pace as they searched, as nervous as Cho was not having any weapons to fight with he still managed follow with out complaints. It wasn't like this was the first time he was up against the dangers of monsters with out being able to protect himself, in fact it had been constant.

He really shouldn't have been nervous about it at all...when he thought about it he wasn't nervous about the monsters. He was nervous about passing this test. This mission was about recon skills, and he wasn't a reconnaissance type of person. 'I hope I'm not missing something.'

After searching a few blocks heavily, Nida suggested that they head back, there was nothing down here. At lest in this vicinity.

They reported to Team D per instructions, they had nearly a whole city left to survey.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was simple enough after that, just to scout the city for any thing and risk assessment. They followed orders completely, if they encountered a risk during recon they of course had to escape and make sure not to leave a trail back to the team they had to report to, which would be especially hard under the time limit they had to maintain for each report. And above all don't start or engage in any fights with the enemy, which made the escape portion when they encountered opposition really important.

As hard as it was for him to restrain himself, Cho following orders completely. And he passed with flying colors, entering the SeeD elite as the youngest member ever and gaining himself a LV 14 ranking.

When he was told he would be getting a separate room he thoroughly proud of himself . Even though he never slept there, and practically lived in Nida's, which is where Carbuncle stood before him at the moment. "I don't know, I just needed to take a walk." Carbuncle said.

Cho gave a small laugh at the prospect, a walk? He couldn't be serious. "Heh Heh, You been in that room for 4 years, I guess you do."

Carbuncle didn't say anything, just shying his head to the side with his eyes narrowed at the wall. Before he left for time compression he'd been at the bounds of restraint and sanity, that was an expectable off for Carbuncle, Cho figured it had to happen some time. But now...he just seemed...even worse now that he was back, something was different about him.

Cho folded his arms and looked down at the GF with a more solemn expression, why was Carbuncle so...depressed? "What's wrong with you? You got Zell back, why aren't you with him?"

"He needed to be alone." Carbuncle said, climbing on to the couch and laying down in front of Cho, his ears twitching lightly.

Cho nearly hit him, glaring down at the Carbuncle angrily. "Are you kidding! You waited all that time for him to come back and you just left! Come On! I mean that was really stupid!" Chocoboy shouted at him.

"No, you don't understand, it was best if I _did_ leave him alone." Carbuncle titled his head emphasizing, how could _Cho_ not know what he meant? Anyway, that wasn't what was making him anyway. He was so happy that Zell and Bahamut were alright, there was no way that was it...so what was it?

Cho sat down next to him, laying his hand gently on his head and scratching lightly behind his ears. If it was one thing he knew about Carbuncle was that his ears always twitched when something was wrong. "Well then why are you so sad?"

"I don't know...this whole thing is just driving me crazy." Carbuncle left out a few details, a few things he didn't really have any reason to tell the boy.

But Cho picked it up anyway, he could always read easily Carbuncle. "You like him huh?" Cho said with a small grin.

Carbuncle lifted his head and stared at him inquiringly for a few seconds, but then just nodded lightly and leaned into the hand currently caressing a sensitive spot.

"Hn." Cho looked away with clear understanding, he had went through a similar thing with Nida, only he took a more head on approach then Carbuncle had.

Carbuncle couldn't do the same, Zell was with Bahamut... to love someone and never able to be with them, the thought made the GF cringed internally. Carbuncle never could have imagined this would happen when he first junctioned himself to Zell, it made him wonder... If he had the chance to go back... would he stop himself from doing it? It would have saved him a lot of pain.

That was _if_ this was the nature of his current pain, he hadn't really had too much of a problem with his current situation with Zell until now... But this had to be why he was feeling this way, if this wasn't it...

"Yeah, there's nothing you can do about that I guess. Dose he know?" Cho asked, Carbuncle nodded again, Hmm... "Wow. Well…um…I guess you can't do anything but stay with him. Look at the bright side, most people in your situation don't get that kind of opportunity." Cho pushed himself off the couch with a light stretch and small yawn, then he lifting his shirt off of himself and neatly setting away that part of his school uniform.

He would be the youngest one at the inauguration ball this year, it was so close that he was starting to get anxious about it. Next week he'd officially be a SeeD, just like Nida.

"Yeah, your right, for _once_." Carbuncle smirked with a clear shot at the boy's intelligence and judgment.

"Hey!" Cho threw his shirt at him in relation, which Carbuncle avoided with a swift jumping off of the couch. Seeing that he had nothing else to throw, Cho just let it go. Noticing that Carbuncle seemed to have the answer to his previous question "Where are you going?" The boy asked.

"I'll be back in a few hours." Carbuncle's smirk grew into a sheepish smile. "I have a machine to wreck." Carbuncle had a look that Chocoboy immediately recognized as his own, meaning that this could only end in something being destroyed or someone getting hurt.

"Heh Heh." Chocoboy watched him leave, curious as to what would happen. As long as it made him feel better.

As soon as Carbuncle left Nida walked in to the room, looking in Carbuncle's direction with an almost surprised look. "Where is he going?" Nida asked, he was surprised that Carbuncle had actually been in his room.

"I don't know." Chocoboy shrugged with a light smile "He said something about wreaking a machine."

Nida closed the door behind himself, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and a deferential expression forming on his face while he watched as the boy taking off his pants and tossing them aside in favor of more comfortable clothing that he hadn't retrieved yet. "So, I heard you passed your field exam, congratulations." Nida rubbed Cho's head teasingly, a proud smile on his face.

"Yeah, I'm at LV. 14!" Cho smiled widely, he looked up at him with an admiring look he usually looked at the boy with. "What level are you?"

"Level 22." He said plainly.

Level 22? Nida had risen 5 rankings from level 17 so quickly, and he hadn't even been trying. it made him wonder what Nida could do if he really applied himself. Better yet, he wondered what Nida's paycheck looked like. "Whoa! You have to teach me more, I have to pass those test." Cho said decidedly, Nida had managed to get to such a high level from his first field test, he could only think that he hadn't tried hard enough.

And all this talk about the field exam made Cho remember thoughts he had before, to be exact…

_! - ! - ! _

_He was anxious and ready and willing to do anything Nida said. Which made him block out a few thoughts. 'Come on! Focus Damnit, you can think about that later.' _

_! -! - !_

Now was definitely later, before he realized it he found himself hugging Nida's waist tightly. "Hey Nida?"

"Huh?"

"You know, I haven't gotten any in a week. You know how hard it is to focus when you constantly have a boner?" Cho asked almost teasingly, definitely hinting.

Nida could feel the boy's erection pressing against his leg, which was involuntarily making him hard. The blood rushing away from his head _wasn't_ good for focusing. "I do now." Nida sighed. When he was Cho's age he remembered having more self control, where did all that self control suddenly go? And why didn't Cho have any?

"Really? Then what are you waiting for?" Cho asked, undeniably teasingly this time when he began rubbing Nida's erection through his pants.

Nida flinched, reflectively biting down on his lower lip to hold back a moan from the sudden jolt of sensation. Cho couldn't help but smile even wider at the reaction, unzipped Nida's pants and releasing the still hardening cock from the restricting fabric. No, Cho had no self control or patience for that matter, "Your gonna have to learn restraint." Nida told him.

Nida allowed Cho to push him back on softly on to the chair, an impish smile on his face as he leaned over Nida's leg, pressing his against the other boy's. "Maybe later." with both hands resting on Nida's legs he dropped to his knees before the cock.

The boy grinned sheepishly before giving the long cock a soft lick, running his tongue over the head, paying special attention to the slit where he knew Nida was the most sensitive before taking it in his mouth. Nida freely moaned, his hands inanely drifting to the boy's head, his fingers digging in to the boy's tan hair.

Cho ran his hands over Nida's thigh, slipping them in to his pants and around his waist pushing two fingers in to Nida's entrance. Nida's breath became shallow as he laid his head back and clinched the arm rest, he never understood how he was so sensitive when Cho was doing this to him.

Cho grinned to himself, growing harder just watching what Nida let alone knowing he was causing it. "Ah…Maru…" Nida moaned softly, followed by a restrained groan, where the hell did his self-control go?

Cho nearly flinched when the older boy thrust in to his mouth, forcing him to take the cock in deeper. Then he pushed himself back on Cho's fingers, drawing another heavy breath from his half parted lips while thrust hungrily into the boy's mouth "Uhaa..." It felt amazing, the slick warmth encompassing his member was only intensified by the tongue accenting his every thrust with long licks and increasingly intensified sucks. He couldn't help but intensify his grip on Cho's head and pull him forward in time with his thrusts.

And Cho was loving every second of it, every twinge of Nida's face, ever light uprising of his leg that he had to push down and hold in place... he wanted more of it...

With an inward smirk he stopped thrusting with his fingers, knowing Nida was too far gone to for him to cease abruptly like that.

Nida groaned, opening half lidded eyes hastily, unable to stop a weakened whimper from forcing it's way out of his mouth from. 'Damnit, he's enjoying this.' Nida's hand free hand dug harder into the boy's hair in a grip just short of painful and pushed himself back on the fingers pressing against his entrance. A swift rhythm came about, driving himself back on to Cho's fingers moving messagingly against his inner walls and thrusting his erection into Cho's half parted lips.

Nida abruptly pulled Cho's head forward "Cho...!" The older boy gripped the seat harder, his eyes clinching tightly enough to draw out the beginnings of tears and his body constricting around the boy's finger. He let out a loud moan and spurting cum in to the boy's awaiting mouth.

Cho reluctantly pulled back, wiping away a the small bit of Nida's cum on the side of his mouth with that same smirk on his face that Nida found impossibly cute. He couldn't help but smile when he saw that expression.

Staring back at Nida Cho narrowed his eyes devilishly, his hands sliding up Nida's legs to the loosened unbuttoned waist band of his black pants. Staring at in to the blue orbs as he pulled them down, making him slide down in the chair slightly. Then he pulled Nida's boxers down to his knees, making him slip down even farther until he was half slumping and in to the perfect position.

Nida gave him a half smirk "Your enjoying this aren't you?"

Cho leaned forward, pressing his lips to Nida's in a small kiss and immediately after that same smile returned "Yeah." he whispered, watched Nida for a second, his chest slowly rising and falling from the deep breaths. The one half lidded eyes looking back at him wantonly, and his softening cock still dripping with a small amount of cum.

He was only 14, but even he could appreciate how good Nida looked at that moment, he always appreciated how Nida looked during sex. Just seeing the usual, cool, collectively calm boy shifted to this flustered and overwhelmed one, he loved it. The look Nida had no idea we was portraying at times, like that sleepy expression he had in the morning when he woke up in nothing but a T-shirt and a pair of boxers, or how his hair hung down over his face when he got wet. It was enough at times to make him so horny that it hurt, like now.

Cho ran his fingers over the head of Nida's cock, scooping the last bit of remaining cum giving his own painfully hard erection a few quick strokes. Nida lifted one leg on to Cho's shoulder to allow the boy a better angle, laying in a rarely submissive pose that he knew the boy intended to take full advantage of.

Cho thrust his finger roughly in to older boy's entrance twitching in anticipation, drawing it back and driving it in even harder. Each second he stared at Nida, studying each movement of the body in front of him no mater how slight. He wondered if Nida knew how he looked at the moment, probably not, he never new...Cho paused to force a second finger into the taunt entrances, and pushing the pair making sure to brush against the inner muscles with each stroke. Nida's expression cringed again, his cheeks flushing with a bright red "Cho..." he cried out softly as the roughly delicate work of Cho's fingers drew another spurt of cum from his softening member.

When Cho saw that he couldn't resist any longer.

Cho lifted Nida's other leg on his shoulder, swiftly pressing his hard cock against the still twitching ring muscles awaiting entry. The pushed in to the older boy's ass swiftly, gaining a sharp pant from Nida from the forceful entry, there wasn't much pain though since Cho wasn't as big as he was.

Cho was enjoying every second of it, Nida rarely let him be on top, and he was ready to take advantage of it. Cho never really was a person to like being on bottom, but he loved it with Nida, for once he liked giving in to someone, letting them use him.

"Uuhh-- Harder." Nida grunted, Cho happily did so, pulling himself closer to Nida and pushing in faster, nearly frantic with anxious. Cho held on to Nida's waist, feeling his newly regrown erection pressing against his chest as he leaned forward pushing his young cock in as far as he could.

"Maru--" Nida moaned, reaching up and wrapping his arms around Cho's neck. Another spurt of the creamy white seed spurted from his semi-hard cock on to Cho's chest. Where was his self control again? Cho was the only person who could do this to him...

The feeling of it all, hear Nida moan in pleasure because of him, and the look on his face right now, especially the position he had the older boy in right now, he didn't know how he was able to hold out long. His long since overwhelmed senses were enough to make Cho follow after. "Nida!" Cho moaned in to a near scream, sending his cum streaming in to Nida's body in volumes previously on matched.

He slump, nearly falling as he released Nida's legs from his shoulders and left panting on the older boy's chest with his arms wrapped around his torso tightly.

Cho looked up at him with a devilish grin, catching his breath. He looked down at himself, "Shower?"

Nida rolled his eyes at the implication, reluctant at first, couldn't help but nod in agreement. "No self control."

"Your one to talk."

"Me? This whole thing is your fault."

Cho laughed, hugging Nida righter "Your really cute when you look like that."

Nida let a small grin pass over his lips, rubbing Cho's head lightly.


	4. Chapter 4: An old routine

Chapter 4: An old routine

It was the day after, a full 24 hours and things still hadn't settled down. It was sometime around 7 in the morning, most people were still sleeping except for a small number of students who had morning classes or where just those who woke up early. Among that small few were Griever and Ifrit, their familiar routine was starting up again, leaving them to square off in the only place that seemed fitting for them, the training center.

Ifrit knew that this was were Griever would most likely be, and of course and there he was.

"Griever, Hn. Training as always" Ifrit said familiarly as he approached the GF who didn't seem to be fighting at the moment.

Griever gave him a glance to acknowledge he was there and that was about all, closing his eyes again with that same silence he always had. That made it unclear of what he was doing right now, taking a break maybe, possibly thinking, or just meditating. At the moment he was only training by himself, no monster here was brave enough to approach something as powerful as him. Same Griever as before, Ifrit thought, he hadn't changed a bit.

Conversation wasn't one of Ifrit's strong points, but ignoring that fact for the moment he wanted to talk to Griever, to say something. Conversation wasn't something that usually took place between them. "What have you been doing all of this time?" Ifrit asked, as well as he knew Griever he couldn't help but feel nervous...no it was never nervousness, it was anxiousness. His heart beat inanely began to elevate and he swallowed, he couldn't help it, 'Damnit, how dose he always do this to me.' he mentally growled, clinching his fist. He knew what this would most likely lead to.

Griever wasn't exactly a socialist, he talked as little as possible, "Training." One word responses were his specialty, if it was possible he was better at being Squall then Squall was.

"Hmm….you seemed to have gotten stronger." Ifrit said, leaning his back against a tree beside the GF sitting on the ground in front of him.

"The same could be said for you." Griever replied. There was a very simple way Griever had learned to tell Ifrit's strength, Ifrit was just like an open book to him. Every time Ifrit got stronger his eyes grew just a little bit of a deeper shade in those golden eyes.

Ifrit had always been weaker then Griever, which was probably why Griever like Ifrit so much when he first met him. Ifrit was always striving to becoming stronger, to keep up with Griever, it gave him a purpose, it had been his only purpose for who knew how long.

Griever liked being in control more or less. Ifrit loved him, and Griever had never been that involved in the odd relationship, if you could call it that, they had. Griever always was leaving to someplace in search of become stronger, leaving Ifrit behind and only coming back when he wanted sex or to spar. He never actually liked doing that to Ifrit, and he never realized it until he saw Ifrit again when fighting Ultimecia. He didn't want to fight against him, not like that...

Though he didn't show it at all he had always harbored some guilt for when Ultimecia made him fight against him. That may have been one of the reasons he came back with Squall...he wasn't really sure why he was really here. It was one of the things he was currently thinking about.

Well, enough about that, he was more interested in other things then trying to figure out everything else. He more curious as to how strong Ifrit was. He'd thought about that often, he'd found himself asking that question at the most unusual times and even in the worst situations more and more frequently. Truthfully Griever _wanted_ Ifrit to get stronger then him, it was something about seeing his diligence and persistence that made him want the fire GF to surpass him. That didn't mean he'd take it easy on him.

"Hmm… Let's see how strong you've gotten" Griever opened his eyes and gave a sideways glance to Ifrit with little warning before he charged at him, throwing quick punch. Ifrit was expectant of the attack that finally came and titled his head to the side, allowing Griever to strike the tree instead. Ifrit was waiting for that, sending a strong punch at Griever's face, Griever caught his Ifrit's fist and pulled him in by it, trying to strike him with his other hand.

Ifrit crouched under and evaded the blow, wrapping his free arm around Griever's waist and lifting him in the air, then with a buck of his horns into Griever's stomach he tossing him aside. Griever easily landed agilely on his feet, at the moment glad that Ifrit's horns curved downward or else that would have hurt a lot more. With his muscles tensing in a spasm motion the red blades on his elbows protruded and the claws on his fingers as well. Griever spread his wings, which were fuller now than in the Ultimecia battle, the feathers had grown back nicely.

Griever lifted himself in to the air with a small flap of those wings, knowingly casting a water spell on Ifrit.

'!' A large bubble of water surrounded the fire GF's body, but it did little good against him. Knowing his own weakness it would take more then a simple water spell to hurt him. He wrapped his arms around his chest, snarling outward with a loud growl followed by a burst of flames that expanded outward, evaporating the water and leaving it to steam upward in a white mist.

Griever smirked at the sight, he could see that he had become much stronger then when he last saw him, he could remember when one water spell was all it took to beat Ifrit. 'Hn.'

Griever shifted his wings, rushing towards Ifrit at an unexpected speed. Ifrit had never seen Griever move that fast, he could only lift his arms over his face and block while Griever stormed past him, swiping at his chest with his claws and throwing him off his feet. Ifrit was quick to recover, relinquishing the momentum with a backflip and springing directly in to the air. With an out stretched arm and an uttered word he cast a tornado spell, mainly in retaliation for the water spell earlier.

Strong winds instantly washed over Griever and swirled around him, picking up debris and gaining a strong rotation around the stalled Griever in to a roaring tornado. 'This is nothing.' With one flap of his wings, Griever dispelled the wind with a disrupting burst of his own, disabled the tornado.

That effectively created a silent agreement between them that there would be no more spells, it would just waste time. Besides, that wasn't how he wanted to fight Griever anyway.

Ifrit staked across the soft grass with a strong speed at the beast GF, his body radiating a strong heat that left a streak of fire trailing behind him. He roared loudly as he lowered his head and rammed into Griever with his horns, wrapping his arms around Griever's back and driving him down to the ground with the heat of flames pursuing. Even after he had Griever pined down Ifrit didn't let go, driving him harder in to floor ground, burning him with the intense heat that flowed around his body. "Damnit!" with an audible grunt of pain Griever reached up and grabbed his horns, using his strength to lift him up just enough to drive his knee up in to Ifrit's stomach once and kick him off.

Ifrit was thrown through the air, the wind being knocked from the powerful blow on impacted as he landed face first on the ground "Ohhfff..." Ifrit, holding his chest, pushed himself on to his feet again but by the time he got up Griever was standing over him, throwing a punch to the side of his head unexpectedly, he stumbled to the side, trying to catch himself quickly. Leaving an opening for Griever the opportunity to wrap his arms around Ifrit and put him a bear hug, more as a display of physical strength then anything.

He squeezed the flame GF with all his strength, it was enough to force a started cry out of him, Ifrit pushed back, only managing to loosen the grip around him slightly. 'D--...damnit...he's too strong...' Griever was still stronger then him, there was no way he would be able to break out like that. His only choice was to force Griever to let go.

"Let GO!" A strong heat surged from Ifrit's body, igniting in to a scouring flame as soon as it made contact with the air. Both of them were enveloped in a haze of burning red from the heated air and raging fire. Griever still held on though despite the heat, only tightening the bind around the fire GF's torso to make up for how much he was slipping. "!" Ifrit pushed outward causing the to heat intensify and the flames to grow even stronger, throwing Griever forcibly from Ifrit and leaving his body smoldering, parts of him still on fire. Plus a 5 foot radius of incinerated ashes surrounding Ifrit.

Ifrit took the chance to attack the downed Griever, burning through the air head first as he came closer and closer an increasing speed. '...'Griever was ready this time, he rose to his knees just as Ifrit came into range, catching him by the horns and halting him completely.

Ifrit clinched his fist and sent a strong punch in to Griever's stomach, forcing him to let go and stumble backwards.

Griever cuffed his fist together and hammed down in to the back of Ifrit's head and forcing him to the ground. Ifrit pushed himself back up, driving his head and horns in to Griever's chin and knocking him up in to the air. Before he could get too far, Ifrit wrapped his arms around Griever's waist and slammed him back down. Followed by an intense heat sourcing from Ifrit's arms still holding Griever down.

Griever winced from the heat, sitting up right despite Ifrit's attempts to hold him down. "Hn, you usually wouldn't have gone this long, you have gotten stronger."

That was more words then he expected to get out of Griever, "What?" Ifrit looked up at him with surprise, did Griever just _complement_ him?

Griever shook his head, typical Ifrit, always getting distracted. He gave him a swift punch in the head to get him back in to the fight before reaching down and taking hold of both of the arms around his torso, easily prying them away with his strength. With a swift push Griever tossed off.

Ifrit landed on his stomach, he heat his body was still generating burning through the undergrowth scattered along the ground. 'Damnit...' With a growl of annoyment he pushed himself up, more slowly this time, and turned towards Griever. Griever was flying towards him so fast that he had to stop himself from flinching. Ifrit grabbed Griever's arm as he tried to attack with his claws and pulling him in, then wrapped his arm around Griever's neck and quickly moving behind him. "Give up."

"It...will take...more then...that!" Griever reached over his head, grabbing Ifrit by his horns, pulled Ifrit over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground. Ifrit used his flexibility to land on his feet, being held in a awkward bridge by Griever who still had Ifrit's horns... Ifrit always was more flexible then he was, at times when they fought Griever didn't know who had who. "Give up."

Ifrit looked up at him with a small grin, wrapping his arms around Griever's waist and using his flexibility to lift Griever off the ground, stand upright and throw him in no particular direction. Griever couldn't land on his feet this time, he hit the ground hard head first and rolled to a stop.

Griever couldn't help but be impressed by that maneuver, he of course knew Ifrit was flexible, but he didn't think he could pull something like that off. Just thinking about the uses that flexibility could have got his blood stirring.

Before Griever could get up, Ifrit dived in to him horns first from above, managing to force a growl of pain from the other GF as a testament to the damage he'd caused. Ifrit reached up and ceased Griever by the neck with one hand, pounding his fist into his chest with the other. Griever took a few of the blows before he was able push Ifrit away.

Ifrit had definitely grown a lot stronger, and hit a lot harder. Griever found himself hold his chest a little when he got up.

Before Ifrit had seemed like a kid, he was definitely younger then him. He knew Ifrit had grown stronger, he'd become stronger every time Griever saw him. He hadn't expected this, how much resistance Ifrit had to spells, and his leaps in defense, his speed had increased and so did the power of his trademark fire.

Ifrit still seemed like a kid to him, maybe it was something Griever would always see him as, but that didn't change the fact that he was actually a challenge now.

Not to say he wasn't enjoying the challenge.

Griever was still stronger, but if Ifrit really pushed, he had a chance at wining. And Ifrit _really_ wanted to win, he wanted to beat Griever for once so the weaker he got the harder he pushed.

Griever again managed to attack Ifrit while he was staggering back, grabbing his shoulders and tossing him up in to the air. Griever jumped after him, quickly passing over him, cuffing his fist together and hammering them down on Ifrit. Ifrit saw it coming, anticipating it with clinched fist. His hands glowed with a molten red light, steady streams of white smoke rising, the air around them wavering and distorting from the heat. With a fierce growl he trust them upward Griever, striking him in the chest before Griever could strike him.

An explosion resulted, a sudden combustion covered Griever in rage of flames that knocked him outward from the blast. Ifrit reached outward quickly, grabbing Griever by the neck and pulling him closer. This was it, he could win this with one final blow. "Give up!" Ifrit rushed towards the ground with a strong hold on Griever's neck.

"No." But Griever was too strong, he stopped in mid air with outstretched wings, pry Ifrit's hands from his neck. He had never used this against Ifrit, but there was a first time for everything.

Griever pushed Ifrit back a little with a thrust of his shoulder, using lion hart. He punched Ifrit's with a speed previously unseen, it seemed just as one attack was beginning, another one had already landed. All of it was happening at a confusing pace, Ifrit couldn't seem to regain himself enough to even think about fighting back, he was caught in a torrent of blows that he couldn't seem to tell the direction of. Griever usually would have used his claws, but he didn't want to hurt Ifrit too badly, besides, it was working effectively enough.

Griever did a backflip in mid flight, kicking Ifrit up higher in to the air. He seemed to be to stunned from the previous attacks to do anything anymore. "Give up!" Griever was above him in a second, pounding his cuffed fist in to Ifrit's head that just didn't seem to take Ifrit down. "Give up!" Griever's arms began to glow with a white light, he usually would have used the blades to attack, but for this case he retracted them. Sending a share elbow in to Ifrit's stomach and another one to his head.

"N--No..!"

He turned around in a motion fluid with his last attack, he usually would have cut him with the blade on his tail. But now he settled for a swift w round house kick to the side of the head. Griever cut the rest of the combination short, there was nothing he could substitute for the remaining attacks since they were all...fatal in nature.

He let Ifrit fall to the ground, landing on his back hard enough to force him to arch up one last time.

Griever allowed himself to land on top of Ifrit's chest, his knees pressed hard against Ifrit's sides to hold him in place. Griever pressed down hard on Ifrit's shoulder, staring down into those golden eyes that seem to flicker like a raging flame when ever was too weakened to keep fighting. "Give up." he growled, giving him a rough kiss on the lips and forcing his tongue into the Flame GF's mouth.

Ifrit lifted his hands to Griever's chest and tried to push him off with weakened moans. Griever took hold of Ifrit's wrist and pinned them down to the ground. Ifrit struggled, trying to pull away from the kiss, trying push Griever away...but Griever was just too strong... "I...I give up." Ifrit had officially lost.

Knowing that he couldn't fight any longer, he gave in to Griever as he always had, not with out a sense of accomplishment no matter how small it was. He had put up a decent fight, that couldn't be said for his past matches with Griever.

Ifrit stopped struggling, and when he was sure Ifrit wouldn't Griever finally released his arms, laying a soft kiss on his lips again. Ifrit was more submissive now, though it was completely out of character for him, but it tended to happen with Griever since if wasn't the fight would continue.

Griever moved his hands down from Ifrit's shoulders to his chest, pushing himself deeper in to the kiss. His tongue moved aggressively between parted lips, mangling with Ifrit's more passive one. And Griever loved every second of it, having someone as powerful as Ifrit being so subservient, another reason he liked Ifrit so much.

Griever lifted himself up a off of the flame GF, ignoring Ifrit's growing erection making itself present from it's sheath and pressing against his tail. Griever ignored it for now, easing himself back down and sitting on Ifrit's chest so that his erection was right in front of Ifrit's mouth. He couldn't stop himself from smirking when he thought about the whole situation, his blood was really stirring now.

Ifrit lifted his hands to Griever's waist, lifted his head off of the ground and pulled the unhumanly long, black cock in to his mouth. His tongue was more aggressive then before, swirling around the head almost teasingly, tentatively licking the slit with the tip of his tongue.

Griever leant over, planting his hands on the ground on above Ifrit's shoulders. He let out weak growls that bordered on purrs, resisting the urge to squirm and moan though he was unable to stop his tail from whipping around tentively. Ifrit's tongue ran along the bottom of the cock with soft strokes, waiting until he gained another soft growl before Ifrit pulled Griever's waist forward and droved the cock deeper in to his mouth.

It happened so suddenly that Griever nearly fell back, the slight embarrassment from his momentary lapse in senses. Ifrit pulled all of Griever's length in to his mouth with one quick tug, the sudden emersion in the slick heat drew a loud groan from Griever.

Griever's growls changed from soft growls into a low roar, he held on tightly to Ifrit's horns as the mouth around his cock drove him to his limit. The GF spilled his cum into Ifrit's awaiting mouth, finally releasing his hold on Ifrit's horns. Unrooting his fingers from the ground that had dug subconsciously, he pulled his softening black cock from Ifrit's mouth, now streaked and dripping with white cum contrasting to the dark flesh, and sat up strait, taking a moment to stare into Ifrit's eyes that had now lost their flicker that came with weakness.

There was something else that replaced it, that mixture of emotions that he held for Griever and himself. It was a part of their routine, Griever had gotten a familiar contentment for that look on Ifrit's face, that among the other things about Ifrit. He couldn't help but smirk at the sight of it, and then smile with light amusement at the confusion that always saw on Ifrit who didn't know what he was smiling at.

Griever pushed himself off of Ifrit's chest, his hands regaining their former place above Ifrit's shoulder as held himself just above the idle body beneath him. He lent down, slipping his tongue into Ifrit's partially open mouth with a light kiss, easing his body down on top of Ifrit's. One arm wrapped around Ifrit's waist wile the other reached down, still studying Ifrit's eyes and the expression on his face as he slipped the arm underneath Ifrit's leg and pulled it over his shoulder, knowing Ifrit was flexible enough for a position that would be painful for most others.

Ifrit always had a tendency to shift his head to the side and look away when Griever did this to him, another thing that was familiar in their routine. A small pang of guilt washing over him for liking what Griever did to him, his will always screamed at him that at a time like this he should have been thinking about how he would beat Griever next time, how he'd should have been stronger this time. Everything other then what he was thinking right now, which was that he was ready and waiting for anything Griever would do to him.

Griever quickly grew hard again from some pint up lido and heartbeat that could never seem to be contained whenever he did this. A drop of sweat streamed down his chest from raising body heat, he smiled again, knowing how much Ifrit loved that distinct heat that build around him when the fought or did other wise.

With a tightening hold around Ifrit's waist Griever forcefully pushing his cum slickened cock in to Ifrit's entrance, Ifrit drew in a sharp breath with a small wince from the rough entrance, it was always rough. Simply enough on many levels this was completely primal, their constant routine of fighting was a battle for dominance.

Griever pressed his body to Ifrit, that natural flexibility making it much easier for Ifrit to handle. He pressed his in face against, giving soft kisses and slow licks as his body moved against Ifrit's with slow thrust. Ifrit dug his claws into the soft soil beneath him, clinching into tight fist with tight clumps of uprooted grass clinched between them. His back arched up and he lifted off of the ground with a loud growl of mixed pain and pleasure as he felt Griever's full length being thrust inside of his body again. But he stopped directly afterwords.

Griever wrapped his arms around Ifrit's back as he arched, pulling him along as he sat upright and climbed on to his knees. Griever shifted his arms downward and took hold of Ifrit's legs, pausing for a few seconds while Ifrit wrapped his legs around Griever's back before continuing.

"Uhaa!" Ifrit gasped and immediately wrapped his arms around Griever's neck when he felt the long cock pushing upward, driving into him.

Griever pressed his mouth against Ifrit's abdomen, his eyes watching every contortion he was causing to pass across Ifrit's face. He ran his tongue across the heated skin, leaving a wet trail between Ifrit's abs and over his shoulder. Then he pushed on Ifrit's legs, pushing the GF down as he thrust upward and drove his full length into the warm heat of Ifrit's body.

A loud roar ensued from the deep penetration that came in a forcefully way, this time it was a lot more pain the anything else. Ifrit tightened his grip around Griever's neck, pulling himself closer with heavy pants. He laid his chin on Ifrit's shoulder, clinching his eyes tightly and digging his claws Griever's back, so hard that it had to be painful. "Griever..."

Ifrit drew in a sharp breath, throwing his head back with his eyes widening and his claws burrowing even harder in to the expanse of Griever's back "!" He couldn't stop himself from letting out a loud roar that echoed threw the whole Training center with his fangs barred. The feel of Griever cock driving into him, stroking ever part of his inner walls, as well as his own member being rubbed between against one idle and one vigorously moving torso drove him to his limit. Inhumanly large stream of cum boarding on hot shot out of Ifrit's erection, covering both their bare chests in the cream liquid.

Ifrit's taunt body became tense, tightening around Griever's cock mid thrust. Griever bit down hard in to the small junction between his neck and his shoulder to stifle any sound that threatened to force it's way out. His whole body seemed to tremble as he came soon after Ifrit, spilling the seed into the warmth of Ifrit's body until it over flowed, streaming down his balls and coating both his legs.

Griever fell forward, dropping Ifrit on his back and landing on top of him...

Ifrit waited for a moment, taking shallow pants to catch his breath. Griever only lay there, apparently with a lot more stamina then Ifrit since he didn't seem to be tired, his hands holding Ifrit by the sides gently while he eased the bite mark he made, which now had a steady stream of blood flowing out of it, with soft licks.

Ifrit looked over the two of them, the large amounts of cum covering both of their torsos and now flowing to the ground with in small rivers which was his fault, and the same amount covering most of their legs, which was Griever's. Griever looked partially worse since his fur was matted down from all of the sweat, the parts of it not soaked in cum at least.

...This was a surprise, Griever usually left right after they finished, but he didn't this time... Ifrit, though still unsure, wrapped his arms around Griever's back in a lose embrace , looking down at him questioningly at him. "Are you alright?" he asked, maybe he was waiting for something, this just didn't seem normal.

Griever only gave a small grunt in return, he was the same as before, no doubt about that.

But Ifrit could tell he wanted to say something, he just didn't know how to say it...Ifrit could actually read something off him, he didn't know if he was getting better at understanding Griever or if Griever just wasn't trying. Griever never really held full conversations, it was usually one sided. "……..", like that.

Ifrit turned his head to the side and his gaze outward, it would probably make it easier Griever of he wasn't looking at him.

After another moment of silence Griever just came out and said it…..well, not exactly. "After I saw you fighting that sorceress, I began to think about a few things. …" he said,

Ifrit looked towards him again, Griever was actually _talking_ to him?

"I started to think about how we did things, how I always left when you want me to stay, and how distant I was."

Ifrit was completely stunned, this didn't sound like Griever at all. "Yes….." Ifrit replied reluctantly, still looking away.

"After I saw you again, I realized how much I…" Griever paused before saying this next part, taking a deep breath and mentally kicking himself for actually admitting it. "...missed you. And all I could do while I was thinking was try and kill you." Griever hated Ultimecia for making him do that, after he exploded in his attempt to take her with him, that's when he really started to realize everything.

"You were always devoted to me, even when I left for years at and showed up for only one thing…."

Ifrit looked at him this time, a tent of anger in his eyes "I'm still mad about that." Something he told Griever every time he saw him.

"…….." Griever didn't respond immediately, guilty pains in stomach noted.

"……"

"I don't want that anymore. I always was looking for power, that's why I kept coming back to you."

"I was always trying to become like you, I was always training and getting stronger." And with what Griever had just told him he realized something. "You only came back only to test your power and because you knew you could make me do what you wanted." Ifrit didn't sound as mad as he should have, he had actually enjoyed it, knowing someone was stronger, always trying to pass that person. And the fact that he was always on bottom when he lost, if he beat Griever then……

All of this was just a constant battle dominance, and that's what Griever thought of it as, that was what he thought of their fight as. It why he was always so cold towards Ifrit during all the 200 year span this had been going on, because he thought of this just simply as a craving to be ignored until he could deny it no longer. And that's when he went looking for Ifrit. There was always a fight whether he wanted sex or not, most of the time Griever came to spar just as Ifrit said.

And all the while Ifrit was just some kid, who looked up to and admired Griever, who wanted to be like him. Ifrit felt stupid for being naive back then, he'd even cried once, _once_. At one point in time it was the only motivation he had, to grow stronger and beat Griever. He was just never able to catch up.

"………."

"So what are you saying?" Ifrit asked.

No point in stalling anymore, Griever never liked stalling, he wanted to get strait to the point. "I'm not leaving anymore."

"?" Ifrit didn't believe him at first, but Griever placed his hands on his shoulder to hold him down forcefully and kissed him, hard. Trying to forced him to believe it.

"I'm serious Damnit!"

"………." Ifrit was reluctant at first, but he couldn't help but smirk right before Griever kissed him again.

Griever had decided to stay….but he was with Squall…..On the other hand, Squall was with Rinoa…so it all evened out well enough.

"So your not going to leave again?" Ifrit sounded so child like when he said that, much more then he wanted to. "You never wanted to say in one spot. _Ever_." Ifrit said.

"Hn…."

Yeah, Griever was still the same.


	5. Chapter 5: Never too busy part 2

Chapter 5: Never too busy part 2

! - ! - !

_**Never too busy by Kenny Lattimore**_

! - ! - !

Carbuncle ran head first at full speed through the tall grass, spitefully he realized the grass was taller then him, on the island of Balamb. Dashing away from the garden and on to the sandy, barren ground on around the endurance of the fire cave, a second later he'd entered the darkened cave, he was moving so fast that everything almost looked like a blur.

He was going full speed, using every ounce of his agility and swiftness that he'd gained over nearly 500 years to get where he was going. Carbuncle had to get a momentum going to get this level of speed, and when going this fast everything else about him had to be quick. His eyes had to move and focus on things quickly, his reflexes had to at fully tuned to alter his path when obstacles came about (it didn't take much, a loosely placed stone could have thrown someone his size off.) and the agility to move around corners and splits.

He passed any monster that wasn't strong enough to stand in his way, blowing past it, jumping over it, or just slipping under anything that noticed it (an advantage to being small.) Carbuncle agilely moved threw the twist and turns of the cave, coming to the very back of the cavern.

He found himself on a small island connected by a thin rock bridge, it was surrounded by lava, making the closed in space unbearably hot, he instantly started to sweat at the first contact at the heated air.

_**Girl when we first started we were spending all our time together in love  
Now we're growning on and you're afraid of losing me, don't be **_

Carbuncle slid to a stop as soon as he made it to the center of the island where a large whole resided, kicking up a small trail of dust and leaving behind a skid mark from where he tried to stop to where he actually came to a stop. This place was hotter then the other parts of the cave, his mouth went dry from the hot air, his body forcing out it's moisture in an attempt to cool down. A small body was definitely _not_ an advantage right now. 'I don't know if I can do this….Damnit Ifrit, why did you have to make it so hot!' Carbuncle sighed with a deep breath as he tensed his muscles, his body beginning to glow in a deep red. The flaming aura grew in to a fire shield, a crimson orb that surrounded his whole body.

"Alright, it's now or never." Carbuncle took a deep breath of the scorching air, taking a step back and diving in to the hole at the center of the island.

_**I've got a heart full of love even though I might not show it  
Girl it's you I dream of and just so you know it **_

He was surrounded by a rock tunnel for the first part of the fall, surrounding by an uprising force of burning air that made him squint and his ears twitch violently. But he easily endured it, landing head first in to a pool of molten rock that lay at the bottom with a small splash.

"Ufff!" Carbuncle couldn't help but have the wind knocked out of him as every one of his senses were assaulted by the intense heat. His body was forced in to a ball by his fire shield involuntarily contracting as he drifted slowly downward in the burning liquid, growing hotter and hotter every second.

He let out a small groan, straining to keep the shield up which had already closed in on him from the force, he hadn't expected it to be this hard but he was already out of the frying pan and in the fire so to speak.

_**You have my attention, anything you need at all   
I'll be there when you call me **_

'I can do this…' he screamed at himself in his mind, descending deeper and deeper. He'd lost track of time quickly, he didn't even know how far down he'd gone with his mind so focused on keeping up his guard.

...He just kept falling and falling and falling... "UHaaaaaaaa!" Until he couldn't take the heat, unable to stop himself from crying out in pain from the fleeting protection. He created another shield to knock himself upward, then another, then another, and he continued until he started to feel like he was in a pinball game... or when he found an uprising current which ever one came first.

It pushed him up until he found himself surrounded by cold, suffocating water that cooled his over heated body much to fast. He screamed a muffled cry of pain as he was thrown from am underwater hot spot and he landed on the ocean floor.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

'Water shield….'

His body started to glow a calm, light blue that expanded outward in to a shield that resembled a large bubble, it may just have been that.

He relievedly took a deep, starved breath after nearly drowning screaming, leaving him panting softly. It took a lot of power to keep this air up, but he was strong enough to with stand the strain. Being junctioned with Zell had made him a lot stronger and more powerful then he ever could have achieved on his own.

Another advantage he had gained, it was enough to make him think.

_**If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

He uncurled from the wall and stared upward through the darkness of the ocean's bottom, keeping his eyes on the faint light of the surface until the strain made him wince and clinched them closed. 'Come on, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I can do this, I CAN DO THIS!'

His body rose to the top and the bubble immediately popped with released strained, making him immediately dip downward in to the water. 'Ahaa!' He immediately swam with nearly flailing movements toward the top, raising to the surface with a deep, gasping breath. '...made it.'

With a shake of his head he shook the water from his head and emptied the liquid from his ears with a few twitches. He looked around, founding himself only a about 500 feet from the of some unknown shore. Carbuncle sighed to himself inwardly, forcing his body to swim the distance to the it's limit of his speed, which only took about 20 seconds to reach it.

Carbuncle pushed himself heavily on to the beach and crashed down on the sands as soon as he managed to get out of the range of the tide, panting heavily.

"I made it--...-!"

_**We used to dream that one day we'd have everything we want  
But now that things are movin', I hope that we don't move apart **_

He froze in mid sentence when a large shadow was cast over him, along with an overbearing presence that came over him, all brought together when he heard a loud growl behind him.

Another sigh pushed out of Carbuncle's mouth as his eyes shifted upward to the overbearing presence, a Ruby Dragon was standing above him, towering over the small body. Embers spewed from it's mouth in distorted air from the flame breath it was charging.

"Great, now not, not. fucking. now!" Carbuncle abruptly rolled to the side as the flames shot forward from the dragon's mouth scorched the ground.

He could either stay and fight, or run.

_**You still have my heart  
I've got so much to do, but girl it doesn't matter **_

He didn't really want to waist his time and what little energy he had remaining on this monster.

So he used his speed to spring to his feet and charged passed the monster, finding out quickly from the surrounding landscape that he was on an island.

Which happened to be the island closest to hell.

Not as close to Esther as he had hoped, but close enough considering the way he got there. It looked like he was in for another swim. He felt like he was running on event short of a triathlon.

_**But when it comes down to you I can't think of nothing better  
Every time I'm stressin', I find that it's a blessin' to **_

After about 5 minutes of heavy paddling, Carbuncle reached the fence enclosing Esther, he nearly ran into it actually. He immediately looked up at something that seemed impossible from here, something that seemed impossible to him at the moment.

So Carbuncle starting the slow climb upward, this was starting to get tiresome. He noted that this was like rock climbing, luckily his paws were small enough to fit into the small links of the fence even though they dug painfully into his skin, unfortunately it was much longer an accent for him.

He had his third event, this was officially a triathlon.

Carbuncle cursed to himself as he made it to the top, jumping down the rest of the way in to the sea of opaque colorful roads. "Rubber shield!" A light pink barrier surrounded his body as he descended, absorbing the impact on his fall and making his body bounce up lightly on his landing on the colorful blue road.

With a mid air flip and a disbursal of the shield, Carbuncle landed on his feet. 'And he sticks the landings...'

_**To be hearin' from you **_

From there it was a long walk to the center of the city where the Presidential Palace lay, he'd gained some interesting looks from any one outside...

It was simple until he got to Laguna's room, when he remembered the guards, but his idea was surprisingly simple. Create a shield that looked like Laguna, it's not like it wasn't possible, and hope that they wouldn't look too closely. Since if they did they would probably be able to look right through it.

It seemed to work, the guards stepped out of his way and let him through. They got suspicious when he had to jump to open the door though.

The _real_ Laguna was at his desk with his arms folded, his eyes half lidded and his legs crossed on the desk half sleep. He was slowly nodding off to sleep, so far gone that he hadn't noticed the small GF climb up to his desk.

"Where's Junction Machine Ellone!" he shouted urgently.

Laguna flinched violently, letting out a startled gasped as he lost what little balance he had and fell backwards, crashing down to the ground. "Ow!" Laguna sat up abruptly, rubbing the back of his head as he scrambled to get back to his feet and pick up his chair. "I'm ok!" He quickly turned around, trying to find the source of that loud voice. "Huh?"

"I'm down here!" Carbuncle shouted angrily. Another disadvantage to being small, your often out of people's line of sight.

Laguna looked down, he hadn't been expecting this, he could say that much. He rubbed the back of his head again, feeling a small twinge of pain still residing there. "Wha? What are you doing here?"

"Where is it?" Carbuncle asked again

This was odd, not exactly something he thought he'd ever wake up to but..."It should be in Doctor Odine's lab but--"

He was abruptly cut off by Carbuncle turning and jumping off of the desk, scattering a few papers in the process which he quickly apologized for. "Thank you!" Carbuncle called back, bursting out of the door and alerting the half startled guards, which he easily out ran when they tried to catch him for farther assessment.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

! -! - !

Carbuncle was starting to think he had a shot at endurance running, since he'd ran all the way to the city, though he did walk to the presidential palace, that had to be a deduction.

But he did run from the presidential palace to Odine's lab in the city, that had to make up for it right? 'Yeah, probably.' He nodded to himself, that sounded about even to him.

He remembered where this place was clearly, to his surprise. And was able to sneak in and find his way down to the lower levels where the Machine was under development, he had to climb through the vent to get here.

It was large, and dark, ominously shrouded in shadow. A small grin crept across his face as he looked upon it. "Heh, Heh."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was early the next morning when Carbuncle walked in to Zell's room tiredly, about 5 am of he assumed it right.

He found Zell was sitting on the couch with an uncharacteristically worried expression on his face, it was almost off set by the fact that he couldn't keep his eyes open was slowly drifting off to sleep. He was awaken with an upstart when he felt Carbuncle laying on his lap.

"Carbuncle! Do you know how worried I was!" Zell said, nearly shouting and would have been if not for the loud yawn.

Carbuncle looked up at him with tired eyes, "Sorry…" He didn't sound like he entirely meant it.

_**If you're feeling alone, pick up the phone and call me, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

And again Zell knew something was wrong, Carbuncle had just disappeared for a whole day with out so much as a word, something _was_ wrong. "Carbuncle? What's wrong?" Zell sighed, mentally kicking himself. "I'm sorry about yesterday if that's it." Zell said apologetically.

Zell was that worried about him that he stayed up all night waiting for him to comeback...now Carbuncle really felt horrible that he hadn't told Zell anything "Zell…." He didn't know what to say, he was _a little_ mad about yesterday, but that wasn't close to being it, something else had been bothering him. "Yeah, I am _kinda_ mad about that, but I understand about it." Carbuncle said with a small smirk, no hard feelings there. "You love him right, you were worried about him." Of course he meant Bahamut.

Zell felt a small pain when he heard that. He had forgotten that Carbuncle liked him, he seemed completely out of it lately. Zell tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, his hand resting on Carbuncle's back.

_**Whenever you need me **_

"You know….I wish--" Carbuncle was abruptly cut off by a very apologetic Zell.

"Carbuncle, I'm really sorry. I never meant to hurt you or make you mad." He said. "I'm really grateful you stuck by me this whole time. Just... don't say you wish you'd never met me. I'll--"

Carbuncle shook his head "Close but not quite Zell, I was gonna say that I wished I didn't love you." Two different things.

Zell was hurt by that, some how even worse then what he though Carbuncle was going to say. "I'm sorry..."

Carbuncle snorted "What are you sorry about, you didn't do anything."

"Yeah but..."

"You are you, you can't go around worrying about me all the time." Carbuncle said with a smile. He wasn't really mad at Zell, it was something else...something else was throwing him off...he just couldn't tell what it was. "I've been waiting here for the last 4 years…" Carbuncle continued, resting his head on Zell's leg.

"Part of me wishing I could just have to my self when you got back. It's selfish I know." The small GF blushed with light embarrassment. "But it's hard. I even had a sex dream about you once….twice."

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"What?….How did that work out?" Zell was ashamed to admit he was a little curious about it that.

Carbuncle looked up at him with an impish look on his face. "It was amazing, it may have been the time compression but I felt it." Carbuncle said, curling up and moving deeper in to Zell's lap.

Zell reached down and gently rubbed his head, knowing the right spots like behind Carbuncle's ear, and right above his left leg...

_**If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"Mennaaaaa..."

"What the hell kind of a sound was that?"

"I don't know, it's your fault I'm making it."

Zell laughed, scratching lightly behind Carbuncle's his ear. The small only leaned back into Zell's hand, smiling lightly.

"Zell?"

"Hmm?"

"……You should do this more often."

"I will...

"Seriously?"

"I promise."


	6. Chapter 6: What the hell was that?

Chapter 6: What the hell was that?

"Come on! Wake up!" Cho shouted, he was sitting on Nida's chest, fully cloth and ready to go.

Nida stirred underneath the weight with a loud defiant groan, the only thing he got in return was more shoats for him to wake up from Cho. With one swift buck of his hips Cho was sent flying off of him and tumbling to the ground. With the weight gone Nida fell soundlessly back to sleep as if he hadn't been remotely awake at all.

Cho groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head lightly as he pulled himself on to his feet by the side of the bed. With out hesitation he jumped back on top of Nida. "Wake! Up! Come on you promised!" He shouted even louder then before, planting his hands on Nida's chest and shaking him even harder.

If Nida remembered it correctly, this was his day off, his one day to sleep in and be irresponsible. So why was he being awakened? "Eh….it's too early." He mumbled, pulling the cover over his head.

"What? No it's not!" Cho protested, climbing off of Nida before the older boy rolled over and he fell again.

No, it didn't seem like Cho would leave him alone, it was futile to fight against it since he knew Cho would keep pushing and pushing until he eventually got up anyway. "What time is it?" Nida asked sleepily.

"It's 8:30." Nida let out a sleepy yawn, shifting his hands behind him and pushing upright. Cho paused to admire the look he portrayed when just wakening him, how his relatively short brunet hair was in disarray, those chocolate eyes half lidded, the way the t-shirt he was wearing clung to him. He couldn't help but smile. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, Yeah."

! - ! - !

"!" A loud sound forced Zell back in to conciseness abruptly, his eyes shot open and he sprang upright, looking around anxiously. He half expected to see some type of monster, or something bursting trough his wall, maybe even that they had crashed into something

Zell let out a relieved sigh, clinching his chest to steady his racing heart. All he found was that Carbuncle was still sleeping in his lap who now also awake from the sudden agitation, the sound was loud for Zell but even louder for Carbuncle because of his more sensitive hearing.

"What the hell was that!" Zell shouted, rubbing his eyes as he shaking his head to clear away the reaming sleepiness. There was no way in hell he was going back to sleep after waking up like that.

"I have no idea." Carbuncle jumped off Zell lap knowing he was about to get up. With a small yawn Carbuncle faded out of reality and junctioned himself to Zell.

! - ! - !

Of course his first course of action was to investigate, which may have been a problem because everyone else was thinking the same thing leaving the Garden cluttered with curious students. 'Where did it come from?' Zell wade his way curiously through the other students, wondering if their was a place everyone hadn't already searched.

(Some place under us.) Carbuncle suggested. It had been a grinding sound mixed with a loud boom, it flared up quickly and only lasted for about a second but in that small time it had shuttered through the whole structure.

His first thought was that the Garden had crashed in to something, so logically his first destination was check the ring. But what would be a good vantage point?

'The back of the training center!'

(The quad!)

Carbuncle and Zell had two different ideas that came up at the same time.

(Let's go to your idea first.)

Zell began to push his way through the crowd, moving quickly down the circular hall with a lot of apology. During his hurry he nearly ran into Irvine who'd been going the opposite way, who technically wasn't a student but had a dorm here anyway.

"Hey Zell." Irvine gave him a small wave and fixed his hat which Zell almost knocked off.

"S'up."

The first thing Irvine thought to do was as the same thing that was on everyone's mind at the moment. "You know where that came from?"

Zell shook his head. "No"

Irvine seeing that Zell could offer him no answers he returned to his own search, half harboring the thought of a monster being the cause of the sudden upstart. "Well tell me if you do find something out, I'm going to keep looking around." Irvine called back as he continued walking the opposite way, it seemed that nobody knew which way the had sound come from.

It had been so loud that it sounded like it was coming from every direction at once. Naturally when that happens, everyone assumes it comes from the floor they were on since they heard it so clearly. Everyone except for them.

Last time Zell checked the Garden was docked at their old position in Balamb, which was a crater, bringing up the question that maybe something hit from beneath the ring. Maybe they could see it from the training center, or at least thats what Zell hoped as he finally made it to the training area.

There was a much less volume of students here, most of them had already checked around the place and found nothing. Plus it wasn't somewhere you wanted to stay in look in great detail, being idle for to long would be asking for an attack from behind.

Going through the metal doors to the second area of the center he found even less people here. Either from how early it was in the morning or their curiosity had disproved and they moved on. Zell's body seemed to move on auto pilot because his mind was holding a conversation with Carbuncle meaning he _wasn't_ paying attention. Not until he was snapped back in to it by a loud roar from behind. Which he immediately knew as a T-Rexaur.

Doing a quick pivot from years of built speed, Zell lifted his hand and cast an Blizzaga spell, surrounding the reptile in a crystallize mass of ice. It shattered a few seconds later leaving the monster visibly weakened, angered by the spell it charged toward him with it's mouth open wide and an earth shaking roar. Turning it's head to the side trying to catching him with in it's sharp teeth. Zell flipped backwards evasively, avoiding the attack by only a few calculated inches and countering with a strong to monster's jaw before it could draw back.

The blow forced the monster to stumble backwards with quaky steps and looked as if it would lose it's balance before it caught it self. With a deep growl it turned around quickly, wiping it's long tail at Zell and striking painfully in the side of the head. Despite his major growth in defense since the last time he fought one of these, a blow to the head that strong still hurt like hell.

"Damnit!" Zell was sent to the side until he lost balance and fell to the ground, rolling to a stop. The monster didn't hesitate to run at him with it's mouth open wide, in almost a flinching motion Zell lifted his hand and cast a Blizzaga spell from the ground, encasing the T-Rexaur completely in ice.

Zell stumbled to his feet, closing the small gap between them with a few steps before he drew his arm back and threw a punch at it. With one strike the ice shattered, taking the body with it. "Man that hurt." Zell stepped over the shards, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit. From there it was only a short walked to the secret area, he found Squall already there looking peering the railing.

"Squall?" Zell stood beside him, taking a small glance at the concentration on his face. "Guess we had the same idea." Zell placed his hands on the railing and leaned over, stretching as far as he could until he almost fell.

Squall grabbed Zell by his shirt collar and pulled him back before he did. "See anything?"

"Nope." Zell shook his head.

(Maybe it's on the other side.) Carbuncle suggested.

'Yeah, what was your idea again?'

(The quad.)

"Carbuncle thinks we should check the quad, Wanna come?" Zell asked.

Reasonable enough, Squall nodded an agreement and began towards the quad while Zell turned to take took one last look.

! - ! - !

The fastest way out of the Training center was to go out of the second entrance.

Squall proceeded with a sense of alertness, cautious for any monsters that may have tried to attack him.

He felt a shift in the air behind him, causing his sense of alert to flare up and his mind to scream at him that this could only be a monster. With out hesitation, Squall to a step forward, drew his gunblade and turned around toward the disturbance with his sword outward.

He was relieved to find Griever there. "Griever?" Squall returned his gunblade to it's place, taking a second look around so that nothing else would surprise him. "Where's Ifrit?"

"Outside, looking for the cause of some sound. I'm sure you heard it." Griever started fading out of reality as he junctioned himself with Squall seeing no reason to stay apart.

Great, if Ifrit was outside they could finally know what the cause of the sound in question had been.

! - ! - !

The wave of students that had investigating the first floor scattered and disbursed after having no luck, now just going about their day and talking about it amongst themselves. Squall moved patiently across the circular path towards the Quad, waiting for Ifrit to return with some type of information. He'd come looking for him or at lest for Griever eventually, until then there was no use worrying--- (

Squall! Move!) Griever shouted, With tuned reflexes Squall steeped to the side unknowing of the threat, he saw as this strange monster brush narrowly over his shoulder, clearly it had been aiming for his head.

Looking at it he could see that it was something he'd never seen before and obviously couldn't identify it, a wolf like creature with an almost a dark purple fur that could just faintly be recognized as not being black. It's eyes were accented with red pupils, it was a strange creature. 'What is that?' Squall looked at it surveyingly, wondering where it had come from.

(I don't know…..) Griever didn't quite know what it was either, and he thought he'd fought just about every type of fiend there was.

It lunged at him with an audible snarl, Squall lifted his sword ready to attack but to his surprise it changed in mid air. Shifting shapes from the wolf body into a large black spike that moved much faster then the monster did before. Squall flinched and stepped to the side, just barely letting the spike graze his head and slice through a strand of his hair. 'What!'

It stopped just short of the crowd that had developed behind them.

With great agility, the black monster dropped into a pool of water upon landing and the original wolf form sprang out. Slashing Squall with it's claws and landing behind him. 'It's fast.' Squall turned around, whipping the sword with him and slicing in to the wolf as it lunged at him again, knocking it back. Quickly regaining itself it charged at him again with great speed, instead of jumping it crouched this time and slid along the ground.

With out missing a step it changing back in to the water like form that came at Squall like a cast shadow. Thin but long blades shot up from the shadow that made it's way be night Squall. The tip of one grazed the side of his leg, the next spike that came up was just a few inches to far and sliced across his chest. Squall tilted his head back and avoided a fatal blow from the same spike, diving to the side and out of the way of the water form of the monster with no other way to go.

Squall rolled on to his feet and in one fluid motion he threw his gun blade in to the center of the shadow. The black liquid jump upward from the injury in a splash like motion, sliding out from beneath the blade and reforming back in to the wolf that immediately lunged at Squall again. 'Am I even hurting it! It's too fast!'

Pushing his way out from over the crowd of people, Zell jumped into the fight latterly, grabbing the wolf by it's neck in mid air before it could make it half way to Squall. "What the hell is this thing?" Still falling from the high jump he pulled it down and drove his knee in to it's head before threw it to the ground. It landed hard, breaking down in to the liquid form again on impact.

"Zell look out!" Squall called, reaching for his sword still planted in the ground. It splashed upward into a long blades with 5 prongs that came right at Zell who was still falling.

"Uhhhaaaa!" Zell pulled his head back and flipped backwards, narrowly sliding pasted the blades so closely that they grazed his shirt. He sent a kick into the black blades, pushing himself down to the ground. Squall came from behind, slicing through the thick black spikes and watching the halves still intact retreat to the ground. The shadow on the ground changed back into the wolf, only to be cut in half with an overhead slash from Squall, and it's body quickly faded with it's defeat.

"There is something weird going on!" Zell said, nearly shouting as he looked around at the crowd.

"For get it. Come on, let's go!" Squall waved him towards the Quad, now running towards it as fast as he could. What ever that sound was had to come from below, and maybe they could see it from a different angle.

(That monster, it came from behind you, could it have come from the training center?) Griever asked.

'No, I've never seen anything like it, it was too quick, too dangerous. No one would willing put it in a place where beginners trained, there's no way to run from it.' Squall told him, moving quickly down the stairs to the Quad's entrance.

"Squall!" Rinoa called, seeing him from the stage in the middle of the Garden's wing. She jumped down from the platform and ran towards him, giving him a quick worried hug. "I just heard that a monster attacked you, are you alright?" She asked.

That sure got around fast, how odd. "I'm fine, I don't know how it got in though." Squall said, walking over to the edge of the quad and looking over the railing.

"There may be more of them, if there are those things could hurt a lot of people." Zell said, leaning over the edge as well, finding nothing unusual.

"Whatever monster you guys are talking about, it's probably connected to the loud noise...uh where did that sound come from?" Rinoa walking back over on to the stage and sitting down on the edge, hoping to get some type of answer from them past her own knowledge.

"Somewhere under us." Zell said, resting on the left side of her while Squall sat on the right.

(It could be the shelter under the garden.) Carbuncle suggested.

'Hey, you right! The shelter's under us.' "It could be the shelter." Zell relayed.

As if on que a clicking sound emitted from below them, it was loud enough to come through the thickly layered ground. "Hey wait…that came from towards the elevator." Rinoa noticed that sound was stronger in one direction and since it was come from underground it could only be coming from source. She climbing off the stage and heading hastily towards the exit, Squall and Zell clearly did the same.

The three broke out in to a run through the curved main hall in to a sudden crowd of people that had gathered to investigate the new sound. They pushed through the people, making there way up the short flight of steps to the elevator where Squall stopped to tell them to stay back until farther notice. The three of them stepped inside and headed down.

On the way down Rinoa had a thought. "You know, it might not be the shelter, remember where NORG was? What about there?" The idea just popped in to Rinoa's head, she quickly pressed the button before they passed the floor.

"Your going to check it out?" Squall asked.

"Yeah, I'm just going to look around, if it's anything serous I'll go get some help." Rinoa promised him as the elevator doors rolled open.

Squall knew she could take care of her self, he doubted that anything serous was their anyway.

! - ! - !

Rinoa looked around the darkened room cautious, the only illumination was the dim glow of emergency lights. 'The power must have been cut down here.' She thought to herself, walking toward the pod NORG used to reside in.

"What is that?" She heard a small clicking sound just like the one she heard before up stairs, there was definitely something down here.

She looked toward the Pod, noticing the top was open and something with dark and furry was climbing inside. Must be a monster. "Hey! You!" She shouted, aiming the projectile on her wrist.

It seemed to jump at the sound of her voice, it's body changing and expanding in to a liquid that seeped through out the pod that had helped NORG in battle, turning the whole machine and the three orbs it had completely black. The machine roared to life once again with a low hmm, targeting Rinoa.

'I better get some help on this one…..' She looked toward the elevator and saw that wasn't back yet, she was trapped until it returned. The broken orbs on the side of the machine began to illuminate, instead of casting magic spells as they had before large beams fired from them. A red light flashed on all three of the orbs, firing out 3 thick red beams that melded to one wall.

The large ray reflected off the metal walls, coming right towards her though somewhat dulled. There was no place to move to, the attack was too large to avoid. "Ah! Shell!" A pink shell curled around Rinoa's body but had no effect. The red beam turned out to be a physical attack.

She bit back a scream of pain as the beam devoured her body, it felt like steel, smashing her from all sides and forcing her to the ground. Finally the beam faded away allowing Rinoa to get to her feet with an extended arm, "Protect!" A blue shield shined over her front side.

This time a blue light shined through the black orbs as a beam began to charge, giving her an opportunity to attack. "Flare!" She thrust her hands forward, sending a wave of red energy over the machine. An explosion came from center of the controlled machine, sending a strong shockwave outward from the force.

It nothing to detour the attack, the three orbs fired, the beams mixing together in one massive blue light that came directly for her, in an instant it completely surrounded her, hitting her with magic damage that was shielded somewhat by the shell spell she cast earlier.

With her arm shielding her face from the bright, burning light she was able to here a sound. The distinct sound of the elevator returning.

Rinoa endured the attack, backing away to the elevator and opening the door with the press of a button as soon as she got the chance. 'What was that thing?' She didn't do much this time, but when she came back she wouldn't go so easy.


	7. Chapter 7: The possessing Shadows

Chapter 7: The possessing Shadows

"How are we supposed to fight this thing!" Seiphie said nervously, taking a step back when she saw NORG's pod possessed by the monster deemed Shadow, covering it in an unnatural dark purple that could easily be mistaken for black.

"How do we fight anything else?" Quistis retorted, her voice filled with sarcasm. The Pod began to vibrate, charging a ray and causing the three orb embedded in the machine to obtain a red glow. The shadow knew they where there as soon as they stepped off the elevator.

"It's not so tough, as long as we keep our guard up." Rinoa reassured them even if she didn't know, casting a triple spell on herself and awaiting the attack, which she knew couldn't be avoided. The three orbs fired in unison, their rays mixing together and becoming a wall of red light that smashed in to the three girls. Knocking them off of there feet on impact.

"Ow…that thing hit's hard…" Seiphie said painfully, shaking her head to in attempt to shake away the daze while she unsteadily got on to her feet. She followed Rinoa's example, casing another triple spell on herself and readying for the next attack. Quistis did the same as Rinoa and Seiphie, casting a triple spell while studying a blue light shining out of the broken spheres.

A wall of blue came over them like a flash, smashing them in a compressing manner from all sides them as if it was a gravity attack, it over came then enough to force them to their knees. With another discarding shake, the girls got up, going on the defensive. Rinoa was the first to cast protect on all three of them, A blue shield forming in side in front of them. The process repeated itself two more times until it all three of the girls were under the protection of the spell.

Seiphie cast three Cureaga spells, a bright light shine from above there heads, developing into a light green/blue ring that descended over them, healing the damage from the previous two attacks.

A another red light shined from the three orbs, it seemed like as soon as they noticed it a wall of red was already rushing towards them. As soon as it struck them the previously invisible Protect spell made it self known, blocking most of the force, enough of it to keep standing this time.

Quistis finished with three Auras, covering them with golden light and giving their a golden tent of half induced limit break.

The Pod attacked again, this time a yellow light shined in the orbs. Each of the three fired off individually, the top orb struck Rinoa with a beam that seemed to be the radius her body. He lifted her hands in a flinching motion, ready to block--... "Huh?" She found that it did no actual damage, instead she saw the protect barrier that surrounded her break apart and fade away. The bottom two orbs fired at the same time, doing the same to Quistis and Seiphie, destroying the barriers around them.

"We have to hit this thing with something or we're dead." Rinoa said as she used the triple effect to cast three continuous holy spells. A ring of white spheres encircled the Shadow possessed pod, drawing in rays of holy of light from someplace above. The light pierced the blackness surrounding the orb, burning the unnatural darkness and making the possessing shadow flinch and ripple as if was water. That small motion revealed some of the old pod beneath it before it fell back in to place.

The orb started to shake a little, a green light flashed from the orbs in retaliation, engulfing all three of them in a sea of light, striking them with Non-elemental damage.

Quistis used the aura effect to draw on a limit break, not wasting anytime casting support magic to use her Ray Bomb. A thick beam fired from her extended hands, sweeping across the ground beneath the Shadow and erupting in to a massive explosion that shook half of the garden.

When the smoke cleared roughly half of the pod had been demolished and was laying on the ground in ruins, the shadow seemed to be blown off of the other half allowing the other scorched halve to be seen. But it started to creep over the rest of the halve of the pod from some unknown point until it covered it completely.

One more strong attack was all they needed.

Seiphie used Triple to cast Apocalypse, the same spell from the final form of Ulitaminca that she had drawn and stocked up on during the battle.

An emblem appeared under the Shadow illuminated in a white light, firing out 4 rays long in to the air from 4 different sides. The second Apocalypse started while the first spell was still in effect, sending 8 rays in to the air and hammering down on the Shadow.

Instead of exploding the rays shattered the two emblems, pulling the Shadow down in to a dark, empty void. When the spell cleared away the pod had completely disappeared with no trace of it left behind. Only the original Shadow that possessed it lay injured on the ground.

The dark furred wolf with red eyes panted heavily, unable to move before it was caught into the third Apocalypse spell, It became trapped in the emblem as 4 rays off sprung from it, slamming down into the creature and sending it plunging in to darkness with one distorted ripple in reality.

Seeing that nothing else was their to fight against them, Rinoa wiped away a small trace of sweat from her forehead. "I hope Squall is doing this good." Rinoa slowly walked area where the pod used to be, even knowing that their was nothing else to challenge them she was still nervous about it.

She fount a hole that looked to be only about a 5 inch opening.

Seiphie leaned over Rinoa's shoulder, noticing she was taking an interest in this hole.

"You think that could be something?" Seiphie asked, knelling down next to Rinoa to get a closer look inside. It was too dark to see anything.

"Nah." Rinoa crawled closer to it but immediately jumping back with a startled sound.

She saw an unusual sight, the darkness moved, retreating farther into the hole as if water through a drain and reveling the sliver steel under it.

"Oh man that was creepy!" Seiphie crawled back way from the hole quickly, fearing that something would creep up attack her. It had been another one of those Shadows, and it was in a hole that lead deep under the Garden. That had to mean something.

"Ok, what was that!" Rinoa hesitantly pushed her self on to her feet and took short, slow steps back toward the hole.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Squall climbed down from the elevator shaft, jumping down from a small ladder in to the passage to the underground shelter. He steeped to the side as Zell jumped down under after him, landing on the metal floors with a small clank.

Both of them looked around the familiar pathway, it seemed the only thing different from the last time they were here was that there were no monsters, _anywhere_, and the sounds were different.

"What is that?" Zell looked around nervously, hearing a the sound of water and waves breaking as if their was a tide.

"There is tons of oil down here, maybe that's it." Squall reasoned, leading down the path with the sudden wishing he was junctioned to Ifrit right now. Oil + Fire a sure win.

The path led to a large chain link bridge with a large pipe like pillar in the center of all, the ladder Squall had climbed up and fell off of in to the hidden control center of the garden still hung off of the pillar in the same spot. It lead to nowhere because the control center had ascended to a higher level.

Sound of agitated, choppy waters and crashing waves became louder now that the oil was right below them , making the source was apparent. Looking down through the chain link bridge, they could see the oil levels had risen since the last time they'd seen them, covering the bridge that used to be below.

"This is starting to get really strange, first the monsters disappear and now all of this oil just comes out of nowhere. Any ideas?" Zell knelt down, clinching the chain link floors while the oil shifted below him.

"None." Squall shook his head, knowing that they hadn't gotten any the last time they were in FH, how oil just come out of nowhere, and why was it moving around so much?

(Hey Zell, the walls are all black, there's no way that oil could have gotten that high.) Carbuncle pointed out. (Come to think of it, that doesn't even look like oil.) He was right, the oil wasn't as thick as what ever was on the wall, the oil was darker then it to. It looked more like a really dark purple.

Squall and Griever seemed to have come to the same conclusion also. "Whatever it is may have been what made the oil rise." Squall said, looking over the bridge's railing at the oil, there was definitely something below it, moving around and in turn making the oil stir. What ever it was it had to be large. "So what was that sound?"

Squall looked around below for anything that could be the source of such a noise, his eyes only found on the large pipe in the center of the room that ran down in to the oil. 'Where would that lead to?' Squall thought, trying to figure out the purpose of it.

(It must turn the ring under this facility.) Griever said, that would explain the oil.

"Hey Squall." Zell pressed his ear against the rusty metal, tapping it curiously. "Is it supposed to be clicking like this?" he asked, it was an erratic sound with no type of regularity.

"I don't know……" Squall began debating whether something was wrong of not, he didn't know how this place worked but he knew it could be normal.

Another, louder sound erupted from under them, it was similar to the sound of metal buckling. "Whaaaaa!" Zell flinched and scattered backwards, almost falling but managing to only stumble a little.

"That was definitely not normal." Squall said affirmatively, drawing his gun blade offensively toward the steel.

(Hey Zell, you sure you want to let him do this? What if he's making a mistake?) Carbuncle asked. "Squall hold on, are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Zell asked, knowing he was about to cut open the pipe. Squall gave him an acknowledging nod and pushed the tip of his blade in to the rusted metal. Cutting a small hole into the pipe, not more then an inch wide.

No oil came out of it like Zell expected, as it should have, instead a black liquid lay on the other side but it wasn't coming out of the hole as if it was a mold of some type of gel, it was completely still. Squall slowly slipped the tip of his blade in to the hole again, poking the substance. It jumped outward in a splash like motion, beginning to stir and cause that intensely loud grinding sound again.

(Wait, that's one of those things that attacked you up stairs.) Griever realized.

Squall relayed Griever's words to Zell, there was a shadow in there for whatever reason. "How do we get that thing out of there?" Squall took a step back, another look around made him realize that they were completely surrounded by the strange monsters. They didn't take physical forms, they were all over the walls and inside the oil, and judging from the size of the one Squall and Zell had fought there had to be hundreds of them here.

'Oh Hyne, how did all of these things get in here?' Lifting his gun blade above his head, he slice through more of the metal, turning the small hole in to a large gash. Inside they could see that the Shadows inside where swirling around a large piston counter-clockwise, trying to force the it to move the opposite way. That piston rotated the ring under the Garden, and the Shadows must have been trying to control it. But why? "There--,those things are trying to control the Garden…" Squall spoke as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Zell looked at the melded Shadows around and inside of the piston then at the ones on the wall, "Why?"

Squall looked at him with a shrug. "I don't know."

(How can we stop a number this large?) Griever was right, to attempt to fight a number this large was suicide. After seeing what these monsters could do they all knew that. (They know we're here, we should probably get out of here if it's your duty to warn everyone upstairs.) Griever said, Squall repeated the message to Zell. He was right, the Shadows were most definitely making their way upstairs, one of them already had, two if the one Rinoa fought was counted.

Their was no way the students could fight an enemy like that, these things were too quick and that shape shifting ability was especially dangerous...What was he suppose to do now?

Carbuncle noticed something else. (Zell, is it just me or dose it look like that black stuff is bigger then it was before?)

Zell looked around at the walls and noticed what Carbuncle was talking about immediately, the Shadows had grown up to the ceiling and slowly but surely it covering that too. It was like watching and eclipse. "What the hell are they doing!" Zell examined the area around himself worriedly, that couldn't be good.

"Let's go. _Now_." Squall said firmly, walking with quick steps towards the tunnel where they had entered from to find that the whole structure was covered in shadows that were slowly starting to seep in to the hatch serving as their exit. They walked with a sense of alertness over the black, possed ground trying to agitate the shadows, making it to the hatch were they had came.

! - ! - !

"Squall! I was so worried?" Rinoa hugged Squall on sight as soon as he steeped off of the elevator. Squall softly pulled her off.

What reason did she have to be worried, she didn't know anything about it. Did she? "Why?" He asked, looking around to see Seiphie and Quistis were waiting with her. They looked like help, why did she need help? What happened?

"I went down to that room and there was this monster inside of NORG's old pod--"

Zell cut her off. "What did it look like?"

"It was a blackish dog or wolf with red eyes." She told him, watching Squall and Zell give each other a look before she continued. "When it saw me it did something really strange. It turn in to water or something and it was controlling that old machine. It turned all black and the next thing I knew it was attacking me."

"It took over NORG's pod…" Zell knew there was something to it that connected to what was happening downstairs.

Squall folded his arms, his eyes downcast as he thought.

(It must be doing the same thing to the Garden!) Carbuncle nearly shouted it in Zell's head when he figured it out.

"OH MAN! It's doing the same thing to the Garden! It coming to take it over and control it, WITH US INSIDE!" Zell yelled, clinching his head with light panic.

"What? What are you talking about?" Rinoa asked, becoming worried at the loud outburst.

"There are tons of those things down in the Shelter under the Garden, they're doing the same thing to the Garden from down there. That's why we came back, there's no way we can stop that may. At lest by ourselves." Squall said.

"What if we send all of the SeeD unites down there? Could they stop it?" Quistis asked.

"No. There's to many of them." Squall said plainly. "They'd be surrounded from the first moment."

"So, what do we do about it?"


	8. Chapter 8: Control

Chapter 8: Control

Only a few minutes had passed but the Shadows below had grown significantly.

They completely _stopped_ the ring under the Garden, which meant those monsters officially had control over were it went. But they weren't stopping there, they were working on possessing the _whole_ Garden.

"Wait, how are they getting up here? The underground is sealed off." Zell slowly turned around, nervously looking at the walls and floors turning black. This was making him really scared.

"Not exactly, there's a hole in NORG's room that runs down there. That must be how they're getting through." Quistis explained, she too was getting a little anxious, if they didn't do something fast the Shadows would completely surround them. That would mean the end of everyone in the garden.

Was it avoidable?

"What do we do o' fearless leader." Seiphie asked, inching slowly away from the elevator since it was the most direct route to NORG's room.

Squall folded his arms and looked down in thought, The first thing he needed was a report, he knew they took over the underground but that was about all he knew. "Everyone, I want you to look around and tell me what those things have gotten into up here. If it's to bad we may need to evacuate temporarily." Squall decided, getting a nod from everyone. "Oh, and find Irvine tell him what's going on. We want to do this as fast as possible and we'll need all the help we can get to do it." Squall called out before everyone disbanded too far.

(What are we going to do?) Griever asked.

'I'll go up stairs and make an announcement, you go find Ifrit. I'll need you two to monitor the progress of those monsters from the outside, and see if you can do anything to stop it. If they get too far around the first floor come and tell me.' Squall told him, steeping on to the elevator.

He knew he was taking a big risk if those things where in NORG's room. They could have surrounded the elevator shaft and attack him on the way up, but he didn't get this far by avoiding risks.

(Alright, be careful.) Griever told him right before unjunctioning himself and appearing in front of Squall. With his speed he was little more then a blur as he flew toward the front entrance.

! - ! - !

Squall made it to the outside of what used to be Cid's offices with little incident. Ascending the lift to the cockpit and finally seeing where Nida had docked them, assessing the situation accordingly. They were back in there original position on the island of Balamb in the original crater where the Garden first reside. Odds were they wouldn't be there for long if those Shadows had gone through all of the trouble of gaining control of the ring.

He found the mic for the intercom sitting near the throttle and turned it on.

"Attention, this is Squall. This is very important so listen closely. First, all of the junior classmen should report to the second floor hall emergency exit. All SeeD members with odd ID numbers, go with them and stay their until farther notice. Next, all students other report to the front door, all SeeD members with even numbers go with them. _Don't_ evacuate yet, if it comes down it someone will tell you when to do so.

There are monsters roaming the facility, they are _extremely_ dangerous and if you see one don't engage it (If there's one, there's bound to be more around)."

Squall said the bare minimum, mainly because more information about the situation would have most definitely caused a panic. Though a lack of information could have the same effect. In any case he really needed to get back downstairs.

Squall replaced the mic move quickly to the and descended down out of the cockpit and in to the forefront of the former office. The only problem was that the elevator was being used by the junior students to the to the second floor. The last thing he wanted to do was slow their evaluation down, the students came first, so he waited.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It wasn't more then 3 minutes until they all were done and left the elevator free for Squall. When he got back down to the first floor he found that it was completely empty except for the designated area.

Zell, Quistis, Seiphie, Rinoa and Irvine were waiting for him at the elevator.

"We got problems, those things are everywhere." Zell said hastily, having fought one head on in his quick investigation he knew just how dangerous a possessing Shadow was. "You can't get near anything their controlling with out getting impaled!" Zell didn't bother to explain what he meant.

"We need to get everyone out of here _now_ before we're surrounded." Quistis said. And just as she did, Ifrit and Griever both returned and rejunctioned.

(Squall, these monsters have completely taken over the substructure and the rear of the first floor. They seem to be going for the emergency exit on the second floor , judging from their speed of movements in a matter of minutes they'll reach.) Griever told him, they had seen the speed of possession and gave a rough estimate.

(The ring is starting up, they're going to move the Garden.) Ifrit began, Griever had explained everything to him had been figured out thus far. (Whatever your going to do, do it now.)

Squall nodded.

"Tell everyone to evacuate right_ now_, I'll go up and get the junior students." Squall instructed, running heading toward the elevator while the others went to the front door. 'Ifrit, Griever, I need you two to go back out side and see if you can at lest slow the shadows nearest the second floor down. There's no way I'll be able to get all of them out in time with out help.'

They all knew that, the most they had was 30 seconds before the shadows possessed the exit. And Squall wouldn't have time to get back down to the front door so they had to work fast.

(Be careful.) Ifrit said before leaving with Griever again.

"Alright."

The elevator reach the second floor just in time before the shadows crept up the elevator shaft from bellow and stalled it. 'Damn...' Those monsters were heading toward the front door, he could see them progressing upward from the cracks in the floor along the walls like a cloud passing over the sun.

"Everyone, go now!" Squall shouted, and with that the students headed toward the exit with SeeD escort. They filed out quickly, but they could only go so fast since it was made for one person at a time. Squall had chosen this exit for them because the shadows were coming from the bottom of the Garden up, this should have brought them more time!

They would have more time to get out then the other students, and there were less junior classmen then other students. They would be able to get out of this exit more easily then the upper classmen would and it would be more safe. At least in theory.

Whatever these things were they were intent on hindering all of those plains.

'Damnit! What are those things.'

! - ! - !

"Come on! Go! GO! GO!" Seiphie shouted, waving her arms frantically. She, Rinoa and Quistis were facilitating the evacuation while Irvine and Zell checked around for anyone still hanging behind. Of course there were a few, with different excuses which nobody wanted to hear.

"Can't you see what's going on! Go, run." Irvine yelled at two students in the library, they were trying to gather some important papers and other things to protect them from whatever was dangerous enough to warrant an evacuation. Irvine ended helping them out.

Zell was helping two people in the infirmary, both with a broken leg or an injury of that nature. With their arms wrapped around his shoulder he helped them out the front door.

"Is that everyone?" Quistis asked, they had been push to the very frame of the front door. The Shadows surrounded them from all sides except the back which was an open door. It was like looking into a dark room, it was a dark room since the lights had been destroyed. How did these Shadows spread so fast! What the hell did they want!

(If it's not they're really screwed by now.) Carbuncle said plainly.

"I think so." Zell said, ignoring Carbuncle's comment for the moment.

Time was up.

The garden shook violently as the ring below started to rotate and the whole structure began to lift in to the air, making all of them lose balance and fall out of the open doorway with mingled cries of surprise and pain.

"Oh Man….We have to get everyone away from here." Rinoa groaned, picking herself off the ground.

"We'll move them to Balamb, Come on we have to move fast!" Quistis said. Trying to get back inside was a useless and lot cause, right now their main concern was not being sliced apart by the Garden's ring.

"You guys go ahead, I'm gong to look around for Squall." Zell called back, going the opposite direction.

! - ! - !

Squall felt the violent jump that was almost to make him lose his balance, he managed to stumble around a bit and gain a somewhat stable footing. Behind him he could see the a dark shadow sweeping over and possessing everything, they had just taken over the second floor class room and were coming his way. Outside he could hear explosions from Ifrit and Griever attacking trying to hold the shadows back. Amazingly enough though they were throwing rather powerful attacks dangerously near him, their was no damage like their should have been, the wall wasn't even shaken.

It was hard, the Shadows were moving fast and coming at him from the floor and both walls. Only three of the junior classmen remained to be evacuating.

"Squall! You have to go now, we cant hold them off, they're too fast." Ifrit called to him from beyond the doorway.

Squall was moving as fast as he could, getting the kids out as fast as he could with out throwing them into the air. With only two more left he could see the shadows at the bottom of the doorway rising up to block him. 'Damn, I have to hurry!'

Ifrit and Griever couldn't do anything about those in the doorway, if they attack they would hit Squall and the kids.

Squall roughly pushed the second kid over the gel-like wall of blackness rising like waters of an incoming tide. It was too high... "Griever!" Squall called out to as he lifted the last frightened boy and tossed him over the dark wall to Griever waiting on the other side. Narrowly saving the child from being sealed in...but not himself. Before he could even think of leaving the black wall had sealed the doorway and showed no sign of moving, the shadows reinforced the doors from the outside from the inside.

And Squall was completely surrounded in darkness, not in a sense of no light. But in the fact that everything was outlined in shadow, and a few pair of red eyes. "…..Damnit."

! - ! - !


	9. Chapter 9: Saving Home

Chapter 9: Saving Home

"Damnit!" Ifrit shouted as loud as his voice would allow him, pounding his fist against the blackness that now covered where the door used to be. The deep shadow rippled slightly from the impacts but didn't move in the least bit.

Griever grabbed Ifrit by the shoulder, pulling him roughly away from the possessed Garden. "It's no use, the faster we find another way in, the faster we get him out of there."

Ifrit knew he was right, don't waste time, don't waste time, don't waste time..."Alright let's go." Ifrit said mechanically, obviously restraining his anger. His demeanor changed so quickly that it would have made anyone else jump.

The two of them descended down to the ground, Ifrit moving so fast that he left an imprint when he landed in front of a flinching Zell. The small quake and resulting gust of wind knocked Zell off of his feet.

"Ow! What the hell--" Zell shouted offensively, about to spring to his feet and punch what ever had knocked him down. Until he saw who it was. "Oh It's you two." Zell climbed to his feet, rubbing his head lightly. He asked the first thing that came to his mind. "Where is Squall?"

"He's still inside." Ifrit told him disappointedly, his eyes fixed on Garden with a small timer in the back of his mind telling him that Squall's time was running out. The ground was vibrating noticeably from the facility's ring being forced improperly against the walls of the creator it was settled in. The Garden began to push forward, the ring just now making's to the shallow earth near as it tried to make itself move before it got completely out of the hole. The digging ring sent a wave of dirt masked by a cloud of dust in to the air as it came to the surface.

It came at them so fast that none of them had time to noticed it or move, first the dust swept over and completely engulfed them in a blinding and choking cloud. Followed by a masked wall of soil that came in enormous volumes like a wave in a stormy ocean, crashing down on top of the three and burying the three ironically beneath 6 feet earth. The ring of the garden just missed them as it narrowly passed over and ascended safely into the air over the top soil that had just covered them.

Griever was the first to emerge, with his height he only had to lift his hands to break earth and pull himself up. Ifrit being a little shorter had to force his way out, bursting through in a wave of heat and hovering in the air above the ground. The only one who remained was Zell.

A large set of wings transpired from the ground, then a long tail surfaced, wiggling like a snake. Dirt was blasted everywhere in a small wave of distorted air at once followed by a large dragon bursting up from the ground. It was none other than Bahamut with a confused Zell wrapped in his arms. "Bahamut? Where did you come from?" Zell asked with relief, not really caring what the answer was, he was just glad he came in time.

"Balamb." He said plainly, easing the flutters of his wings and drifting to the ground.

"We can't get in if we cant catch it." Ifrit said, even more anger evident in his voice then before.

"How exactly can we stop it? I mean it's the Garden, we can't fight something like that." Zell stepped back as the Garden entered the water roughly, sending a small wave of water spraying outward.

"You may not be able to but we can." Ifrit said, indicating Griever and Bahamut.

Did they have a choice? Sure it could be destroyed in the fight but they couldn't use it with those Shadows possessing it anyway, and he rather have that happen then for Squall to die in there. And from what Zell had in countered in his last look over the Garden during evacuation Squall surely would. Zell look one last look at the Garden, before turning to Bahamut. "You better get going then. I'll catch up as soon as I can." He wasn't sure how he'd do that but...

Ifrit was the first to leave, streaking into the air in a red blur in pursuit of the shadows, Griever silently followed.

"Bahamut be careful, I don't know much about those things but they really, _really_ like to change shape, if that helps any." Zell advised, Bahamut gave a small nod before he spread his wings and went after Ifrit and Griever.

The Shadows were heading somewhere, and they were obviously using the Garden to get there. That could be the entire reason for going through the trouble of taking it over, to get a number of Shadows that large to some place all in one piece... But how did they get their in the first place?

'Carbuncle…Any ideas?' Zell thought, glancing back at the stretched out hole where the Garden once had been docked.

(Lots of fire power.)

! - ! - !

Squall had his back against the wall, unable to back away any farther. The shadows were at the toe of his boots and gaining fast, there was no other option but to move forward over the parts that had been already been possessed. Even if he got killed trying it would have happened anyway. 'Here goes nothing.'

With a nod to himself Squall pushed off the wall charging forward and as soon as he stepped one foot on the darkness a row of spikes shot up from the ground threatening to rip him apart. "!" Squall charged forward making it narrowly past with a large scratch across his back, more and more of them burst forth from the ground still trying to hit him. The spikes just barely trailing behind him as he ran, he didn't know where he was going and it didn't matter. He wasn't dead yet, that was a good sign, just as long as he didn't get impaled... 'The elevator!'

Squall turned around the corner narrowly keeping his balance on the somewhat slippery ground, it was like running on slick rubber. With his gun blade drawn he threw the blade at the glass door of the elevator in front of him, the only thing that hadn't been covered by the Shadows because it had been sealed off. These Shadows couldn't get through the glass, the elevator remained shadow free, giving Squall a safe place, for the moment anyway.

'They didn't posses the ground...'

With his shoulder forward, Squall rammed through the remaining pieces of the shattered glass, retrieving his sword now embedded and the ground and pressing the button to the third floor. Thankfully the elevator started moving upward before the Shadows could get inside, that wouldn't last for long though.

As soon as Squall stepped off the stop elevator he could see the Shadows seeping inside from the bottom like the bottom of a sinking ship. There was no turning back now, but it didn't matter, it was safer up here then on the second floor.

The shadows hadn't gotten to the top floor yet, at lest on the inside. On the outside shadows had completely covered the windows and windshields making it completely dark except for the flickering lights internally. That's when Squall finally realized it. 'Hm…..the glass….' Again he noticed that the glass hadn't been possessed, merely covered over. 'Maybe I can use that to my advantage.' Squall thought strategically, but then the thought was quickly discarded.

With out a junction he didn't have a chance of breaking out of, maybe if he had some powerful magic like Flare... He could cast the spell and smash through the window, giving himself just enough time to jump through...No...that plan had it's flaws, if the fall didn't kill him the ring under the Garden would, and how was he suppose to reach the hole anyway?"

Squall wasted no time taking the lift up to the cockpit, finding the radio next to the throttle both still intact. It may not do him any good but at lest he could tell someone that the shadows couldn't possess glass. It could be the key to beating them, and the key to getting him out of here.

"This is Balamb Garden. Is there anyone on this frequency?" Squall called out.

At first all he got was silence, but there was always one thing on the same frequency as the Garden.

The Ragnaork.

Nida's voice rang through the speaker. "Garden? Squall is that you?"

Squall sighed in relief, he didn't think much of it before when the ship came up missing, he was just glad someone who could actually _help_ him had taken it. "Nida? Your on the Ragnaork right?"

"Yeah, What the problem?"

"The Garden has been over run by…some type of monsters, they've basically taken over--"

Nida gasped in surprise, this was clearly unexpected. How could something like that happen? By monsters? Squall could handle any monster, right? How could their be something that could just completely take over? "Huh? What do you mean taken over!"

"They've done something to it….It's like their apart of it or something, I don't know it's hard to explain. But the thing is that now they're controlling it."

Panic, Nida nearly kicked himself, why was he getting so anxious, he wasn't even their. There was something that was much more important he should have been worried about. "What about everyone else?"

"Everyone's been evacuated."

"Why are you still there?"

"I'm trapped inside."

Nida could guess a few reason's why Squall would still be there so he didn't bother to ask."……..So can you describe these monsters?"

"A dog or something like that with dark fur and red eyes. What's so dangerous about them is that they can change into about anything."

"…What do you mean by change?"

"Exactly what I said, from what I've seen so far they can change in to a liquid, just about any type of blade. And they can take over things, whatever they are their moving the Garden right now."

That sounded bad. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the situation?"

"15."

Nida was silent for a moment, he still didn't know what to really expect in this whole situation. "Alright Squall, How do you want me to Help. I'm in Esther now so I could arm the ship if you think it's necessary."

Squall thought about it for a moment, this could result in the destruction of the Garden, did he want to go that far yet?

What if there was another way to do this they hadn't figured out yet? But what if there wasn't, the longer they did nothing, the less time Squall had. And where were the Shadows headed anyway? Waiting could cost more then they could afford. For all he knew they were going to the center of the ocean.

"Yeah sure."

"Fine, just tell me anything else you know about these monsters or whatever might be helpful."

"When they control something, they can still attack by changing shape. So they maybe able to hit you from far away. Plus they're quick, and their attacks are accurate so stay on guard."

"I guess this is going to be dangerous for me too huh?"

"I don't know if they can hit you from the air but I think so."

"What do you think the chances of the ship being destroyed?"

"….If you get too close they'll probably get on to the ship and control it too. There must be hundreds of them so even far away you could have that many attacks to avoid so….."

"I probably shouldn't have anyone on the ship with me then…. I'll aim for the cock pit, that's where you are right? So get ready."

! - ! - !

"No you can't come with me." Nida denied firmly, walking toward the Esther Airstation with a pleading Cho at his tail.

"Come on! You can't leave me here!" Cho protested, not exactly helping him persuade Nida the right way.

"Sorry but it's too dangerous." Nida told him, getting in the final word before he opened one of the glass doors to the building and heading inside. Leaving Cho alone by himself, he wasn't at all worried about Cho being in Esther by himself , Cho would be fine. He was more worried about the city then the boy.

"Too dangerous! I've been through a lot of things worse then anything that could be happening. I made it through Time compression for Hyne sakes! What could be more dangerous then that?" Cho yelled, watching the glass doors close slowly in his face.

Nida still didn't listen to any of his pleases, he only called back "Go stay with President Laguna until I come back." Before he disappeared toward where the Ragnaork was docked.

"If it's that dangerous then why don't you let me help you?" Cho mumbled to himself, slowly turning to head back toward the Presidential palace not too far away.

Nida had been teaching him how to fly the Ragnaork just as he'd promised the boy, and Cho was anxious to see every part of the large city. That would have to wait.

Now he just wanted to find out what was going on at lest, he didn't like not knowing especially something that seemed as big as this was, whatever it was. It was clear that he wasn't going to find out about it unless Nida came back.

But he might not come back for him...Nida never actually said it but Cho had always been good at reading between the lines. Cho was also good at reading Nida, the older boy had been uneasy and nervous about something though he didn't show it. He never showed it.

Cho wandered thoughtlessly through the streets, moving on auto-pilot toward the palace with his mind on other things. What was going on? What could be going on... what was it...what?...what! There had to be some clue to this, what was it...Come on, their has to be something...-- Cho's sporadic thoughts were interrupted by himself running into a wall, apparently he'd been walking longer then he thought.

And his growing frustration was taken out on his own clumsiness and lack of attention. "Damnit!" Cho shouted furiously, punching the wall as hard as he could. Just the thought of it made him mad, he couldn't handle it something happen to Nida.

He lost just about everyone else, he never had anyone else. There was no way that he would let Nida go on something as dangerous as he though this was by himself, he wouldn't let him go with out a fight.

Now all he had to do was find away to go after him.

How the hell was he suppose to do that!

_There where 2 more Ragnaork, and he could easily track them down, he could have his own ship. _

A small smirk appeared on his face in remembrance.

'Alright, Nida told me that the Ragnaork ship used to be in space…' Cho leaned his back against the wall, staring up at the sky as he tried to piece this together. Looking at the sky always helped him think, or something visually condescending seemed to let him focus. He had always been a very visual person. 'There were two more just like it that were used to take Sorceress Adel's seal in to space. If the seal was brought down by the Lunar Cry, and one of the Ragnaorks were already nearby. Then at lest one more of those other two ships had to be brought down with it!'

That was it! Perfect! He was always a visual person, and looking at visually appeasing sights always helped him focus.

Now all he had to do is find out _where_ the Lunar cry had taken place on earth. Another Ragnaork had to be nearby, that was sure bet! And who could he ask? Laguna of course! 'I am such a genius!'

The hell if he was gonna let something like this stop him. 'I'm on my way Nida.'

Nida was gonna be really mad at him for this. 'It wouldn't be the first time.'

! - ! - !

Cho found Laguna sitting at his desk when he made his way to the office, the man was half sleep doing paperwork most likely related to the repairs needed and still being done to the city.

Cho leaned over the other side of the desk, the man seemed to notice him but just didn't feel the need to say anything. "Hey Laguna?" He spoke innocently, holding his hands behind his back and looking around in an absentminded manner.

"Huh?" Laguna didn't look up, he just continued writing. If this was anyone else he would have wondered how they got past the guards so easily, but he'd gotten quite familiar with Cho after he and Nida rescued him and Ellone from the Lunatic Pandora. And he knew just what the boy was capable of, the guards at the door were useless when it came to Cho but it didn't matter since they let him through anyway.

"Do you know exactly _were_ the Lunar Cry happened?" He asked, not hinting anything particular.

Of course Laguna knew, how could he forget all the problems it caused him. "The Lunar Cry?…Hmm, at Tears point. Why?"

Perfect. "Just wanted to know." Cho told him innocently.

"Alright." Laguna just nodded.

With a small tanks Cho left the room, walking past the familiar guards again and heading on to the very fast lift down to the first floor.

That's where his second problem proposed itself.

Just as soon as he walked out of the door he realized it. "Great! How am I supposed to get _all_ the way out there…..with out getting killed by monsters?" He sighed, he only had two options, use a Chocobo, but there were no Chocobo forest nearby so that was out. Or use a car. He couldn't really fight, he couldn't stand up to anything he'd come across walking out there.

He didn't know how to drive though, "I looks like it's time to learn…" Cho said with a small smirk on his face, sure he could get a car with a little 'ingenuity'. There was a good chance he could get out of the city if he didn't crash anything or run anyone over. 'And with everyone working on repairs, it'll be even easier.' Plus he always wanted to drive.

Luckily he just so happened to know where a rental car place was.

! - ! - !

It wasn't too hard to get to it, it took 5 minutes at the most mainly because Cho ran the whole way and he spotted a few marked rental cars being returned.

"This….was easier…then I…thought…it…would be." Cho almost collapsed when he reached the building's door, happy to find it was still open. That meant that the security system wasn't on so all he had to do was sneak past a few people, hotwire a car, and drive off, preferably with out being noticed. Simple right?

Like someone wasn't going to notice a car just leaving on it's own, right that'll happen.

It was time for some quick planning, panting heavily Cho through the door and into to the building, entering a circular room with a road sized path from the back of the room running to the opposite wall.

There was a panel right in front of him used for ordering 'Everything's Automated, cool!' After messing around with the touch screen for a few moments he found that he could afford a car with his saved up salary.

He was too young, the panel wouldn't let him get close to ordering one being only 14.

"Stupid machine!" Cho growled, kicking the panel that had happened to be more solid then he thought it would be. It actually hurt.

'Alright, I'll wait until someone else orders a car….' He thought to himself, but there was no way someone would just let him jump in and ride off, in fact if they found him in the car…… He _had_ to get his own.

"If they had let me get one in the first place I wouldn't be doing this…" He mumbled justly, climbing up the narrow ramp up toward the garage where the cars were held, prying open the gate slightly just enough to slip under it and hear it shut behind him.

What lay before him was a strait passage that inclined upward, lined with red beams that stretched from one wall to the other, most likely for scanning cars on their way in and out and preventing illegal entry. Good thing for Cho he was small, he was sure he could fit under it.

'Man, If only Carbuncle were here.'

With his body pressed against the ground, he used his feet to push himself forward up the incline, just barley sliding beneath the sets of sensors and climbing it to the top of the incline. From there he found another small road leading to the place where the cars were actually stored. There was really no security here…except for the cameras on the walls.

'No problem!'

Cho rolled off of the ground and pressed his body flat against the left wall as he stood, slipping under the Cameras and out of their view. He was just short enough to do it... Simple, or at lest it was until he got to the end of the path.

There was a gate and a camera on the opposing wall. There was no way he could open the gate with out being seen by the camera.

'What am I gonna--'

But just on time, someone ordered a car and the gates rolled open. A car was being towed out by a track on the ground. And with the opportunity presenting it self Cho used the car as cover from the camera, running through the gate and in to the dark garage behind it.

He could see parked cars through the dim light just as the gate closed and he managed to find one in front of him before everything went dark with fading light.

Good thing too, there were cameras on the walls in this room also, if he used a flash light or something like that it would pick it up the light and he'd be caught. What was even better was that the doors were preset to be unlocked and a key was on the dashboard. 'Heh heh!' He climbed into the car and took the key, putting it delicately in to the ignition, though he stalled on starting the vehicle...

And he waited again, for someone to order another car. A potentially long wait that he was prepared to make... But it seemed the person who ordered the car before didn't like their choice and sent it back. The gate rolled open again as the car was pulled back in to it's spot by the track, queuing Cho to turn the key and start the care. This was it, he had to go before the next car left the lot.

"Here goes nothing!"

With out hesitation he stepped at the gas and the car pushed forward through the open gate. He could see over the wheel enough to get a general since of where he was going, but he was short enough that he had to pull his body downward to pressed the brakes. 'Damnit, why am I so short?" The car sped down the path, going out the open second gate and making it easily outside. It was a lot easier then he thought it would be.

Now all he had to do is get out of the city.


	10. My Darker Half

**My darker half**

'This isn't going so bad...' Cho controlled the vehicle as steadily as he could mange, he settled with the fact that he was able to see _most_ of the road. He took a small sense of pride in the fact that he was getting taller and settled with his field of vision partially obstructed by the dashboard and the hood of the care. Most was better then none right?

If he only knew most of the way out of Esther he'd be set, but for now he could only take a guess and follow the skyline. If he saw water he knew he was going the wrong way, if he saw land, he was headed in the right direction.

It seemed to like was heading the right way, he had a generally good sense of direction.

! - ! - !

After a half an hour and a lot of luck he felt the paved roads of Esther shift in to the dirt and rock of the field outside of the city. 'Thank you who ever invented GPS.' Cho sighed in relief, after a few moments of curiously examining the device that had been sitting in front of him the whole ride he learned how to use the console in the car and set a course to Tears point.

He couldn't help thinking that it would have helped when he was trying to leave Esther.

Knowing he'd probably run out of gas by the time he got there Cho went as fast as he could, watching the landscape fly past him in streaks. 'Nida, why couldn't you just tell me what was going on…' Even if he did know, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be doing exactly what he was doing right now...

Cho was thinking so hard, and partially because of the inability to completely see the road, that he nearly crashed in to Tears Point. When he finally noticed his nearly critical error he flinched and shouted in surprise. "Oh crap!" With out another moment's hesitation he pulled the steering wheel sharply to the side, forcing the car to veer even more sharply to the left and just barely scraping past one of the glowing pillars. 'Pay attention! What the hell am I doing?' He mentally shouted at himself, taking a deep breath to still his elevated heartbeat.

He ended up, going at a much slower rate then before, on the road leading to a large statue centering in tears point. Only the statue that once stood tall had been completely demolished by the Lunar Cry 4 years previous, like much of this whole place had been, now mostly replaced with the fallen Lunatic Pandora. Esther wouldn't bother rebuilding this place, in fact they were planning on doing just the opposite and demolish what was left of it.

The true purpose of this place was unknown to Cho, only that it had some connection to the Lunatic Paradona. It in actuality was in part what called the Lunar Cry down from the moon's surface, which is why it happened in that particular spot. The Lunatic Paradona was still there, it had been what demolished the Sorceress's statue when it had been grounded.

Now it posed no threat because most of the interior had burned through from the either intensified flames that had caused it to fall from the sky, it was almost completely hollow inside now.

Yet another thing Esther had to demolish, though they hadn't gotten around to it considering the city's repairs were the first priority. So the place was empty and free for Cho to explore….only thing that stood in his way was the fact that monsters of every type over ran this place.

'I didn't get this far by worrying about monsters!' Cho said to himself, he hadn't getting, and was getting quite skilled at evading them. The boy opened the door of the car, using the window frame to climb up to the roof. Now with an elevated field of vision he surveyed his surroundings, not seeing anything of particular interest in the east. He saw a large, scorched crater amidst the aligned pillars with dimmed colors in the west. Just barely standing on his toes he could see the beginnings of something red inside. "That's it!" Cho shouted triumphantly, that had to be it, it fit all the criteria. It was red, it was in the ground, near the spot of the Lunar cry. "It's gotta be it!"

"Hey Kid, what are you yelling for?"

Cho flinched at the sudden voice, it was enough to make him slip off the roof of the car and tumbled to the ground. He landed painfully on his back and his head struck the ground roughly. "Oww…" Cho sat up abruptly, rubbed the back of his head as he looked toward the direction of the voice. He saw three people, two much older boys and one girl. It was none other then Seifer, Fujin and Raijin, the three together as usual.

"What are you guys doing here?" Cho asked, looking over the unknown faces.

"What are you doing here, this place is dangerous ya know." Raijin took a hold of Cho's arm and pulled the boy up on to his feet. Why exactly was someone his age here anyway?

"I'm looking for something." Cho explained, pointing in the direction of the second airship.

"What could possibly be important enough for a kid like you to be in a place like this?" Seifer asked demandingly. Was this kid serious? Did he even know what this place was?

Usually Cho would have come up with something smart to say to someone like him, but his head was hurting and he didn't feel like the resulting augment it would have. "There's an Airship here, I need to get to Balamb Garden." Cho told them.

"_Nobody_ needs to go to Balamb Garden." Seifer said firmly, there was no way he could know what was going on.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"It's been taken over by monsters, they had to evacuate ya know." Raijin told him.

That explained it…our at lest part of it.

'But why wouldn't Nida take me with him? It's not like I'm going inside?' Cho still didn't understand it. "I really need to get there then!" Cho said, completely sure of himself as he turned headed in to the maze of broken pillars toward what he hoped was the fallen Ragnaork.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Seifer tried to stop him the boy but Cho didn't even look back, receding deeper and deeper into the forest of structures. This boy honestly couldn't be serious, why would he be trying to put himself unnecessarily in a situation like that? Seifer folded his arms and snorted with annoyment. "Damn kid's gonna get himself killed."

Should he just let the kid go? He obviously had a plain to get to the Garden and even if he managed to survive here, which he probably wouldn't, he would most definitely be killed there.

"Come on, let's go catch him." Seifer gave a defeated sigh, dropping his head as he trudge forward. "I'm gonna regret this."

! - ! - !

Cho charged forward, crouching down underneath a large piece of metal hanging down and stepping over another. It seemed just as soon as he took two more steps he heard the roar of nearby monster, the first one so far. 'What was that?' Cho stood up strait, looking around him in light confusion.

It would have been easier for him to avoid whatever it was if he knew which way the sound had come from. 'I'm probably over thinking this." So he ignored it, climbing forward through the remains of strange alloys and concrete that were scattered around.

It wasn't to long until he heard it again, "Huh?" The boy paused again, though still unable to determine where that sound had come from. So once again he ignored it, so he continued on... "Oh crap..." Cho was forced to stop again as he came to a dead end of an impassable wall of debris.

"Hmm..." He stopped and looked around, trying to find another path. He saw a bleak one to the right, one barely visible because of the wreckage surrounding them. Cho couldn't help thinking to himself that 'This place is like a maze...' as he pushed away some of the fallen concrete and metal blocking a slim trail. He kicked the last bit of it in, watching the scraps fall to the ground right before a Courl that stood waiting for him on the other said.

'Oh--' He thoughts were cut off abruptly as the monster opened it's mouth and roared loudly, making a surprised Cho stumble backwards to the ground, the two purple tendrils on both sides of it's face wiping around wildly. They stopped flailing and raised erect into the air as the Courl cast a Thundaga spell, drawing a pillar of golden lighting down from the cloudy sky and slowed Cho before he even realized it was happening.

"!" He bit back a cry of pain as the bolt's electricity tore through him with all it's furry, pressing him flat on the ground and leaving him with a searing pain through out every part of his body. With a hiss of pain Cho stumbled to his feet, he was barely able to take an attack like that.

The truth was he was assigned to a SeeD team focused basically on information and intelligence, something that would take advantage of his skills. He didn't get to do much fighting, and he wasn't really trained for it. That's why this would be really hard for him. His instinct drove him to reach over, feeling blindly around with his eyes fixed on the monsters. He found a metal pipe and immediately took it, which was better then nothing.

The Courl lunged at him with a snarl, attempting to bite him on any place it could reach first when Cho swung the pipe, slamming it into the side of the monster's head sending it sliding backwards to the ground. 'Hey, that was a pretty good hit.' And if he ever needed to train for weapon use, this would be his first choice.

With a roar of anger and blood streaming down into it's eyes, the Courl threw it's tendrils unto the air and cast another Thundaga spell. And just before the lighting bolt hit, Cho realized something 'Wait a minute, this is a metal pipe. This thing is a lighting rod!' With out hesitation he tossed the rod away, drawing the stream of lighting descending from the sky with it. Both of the object and the lighting crashed in to one of many glowing red pillar, with in what seemed like a blink of an the electricity flowing through and overloading it caused it explode, the force knocked Cho off his feet and filling the air with a mass of black smoke. "Aaaahhhhh!"

Before Cho could even think about what had just happened let alone move, the Courl came flying at him through the smoke and had apparently been out of the blast radius. "!" Before it could touch him a silver blade came in-between them, and the unexpectant Courl ran right in to it, completely off balance it passed right over Cho's head.

Seifer lowered his gun blade and thrust it into the ground, then with out warning it he reached down and picking the boy up by his shirt collar. "Are you _trying_ to get you ass killed?" Seifer shouted angrily, holding the struggling Cho off the ground with the clear annoyment that he had to go through the trouble.

"I didn't ask you to save me." Cho shot back, prying himself from Seifer's hold and only getting mad because Seifer was the one yelling at him.

And Seifer was now mad at the ungratefulness. "If I hadn't you'd be dinner by now."

Cho only glared at him in return, he felt off today. Something was nagging at him and he couldn't concentrate completely, or else that monster would have never had him in that position, and he could have thought of something better to do then give Seifer a mean look.

He could just walk off. Which didn't seem like such a bad idea, but there was no way he could do it fast enough to get away from Seifer and the monster at the same time.

"Thank you." Cho muttered reluctantly.

Seifer definitely didn't expect that who had just hostilely ignored him twice, he wasn't even sure he heard it right. "Huh?"

"….." There was no way he was going to say it twice, if he did that he'd just be spiting himself.

It was clear that he had, and with a thank you given Seifer dropped the subject and the augment with an incoherent utterance. By then Fujin and Raijin trailing behind had already taken care of the Courl.

With that out of the way Cho started to towards the crater which he hoped held a second Ragnaork again, he couldn't help wince in pain and push forward with a noticeable limp. He knew he would train himself like hell when all of this was over.

And this boy still seemed to be ignoring his warnings even after nearly being mauled. "Your still going through with this?" Seifer asked, walking after him. It wasn't to hard to catch up with him.

Cho replied with a more strained tent to his voice. "I have too, I have to get back to Balamb Garden as soon as possible." He spoke more weakly then before.

"You are such a dumbass, do you have a death wish or something?"

Cho stopped and glared at him fiercely, "NO!_ Leave_. _Me_. ALONE!" Cho felt something stirring inside of him stronger then before now that he'd let it out, he was starting to get depressed, and with depression came anger.

"Fine, I'm not going to babysat an ungrateful brat. And since you wanna die so badly, I'm taking that car. " Seifer turned to leave, giving a quick look back with the small wondering of how Cho had got a car here in the first place before he motioned his friends to follow. "Lets go."

Seifer froze in mid step, almost out of ear shot when he heard it. A strange, surreal sound that made him turn back around towards Cho.

Seifer folded his arms and walked back to the stalled boy who hadn't move since he'd left a second ago. "Hey kid, are you...crying?" Seifer leant down over his shoulder, trying to get a closer look at Cho's downcast face.

Cho pushed him away with more strength then Seifer thought he had. "What the hell's wrong with you?" Seifer tried again, peering over the right shoulder this time as he heard the soft sobs become louder.

"Leave me the hell alone."

"What did I do to you! Why are you getting mad at me?"

Cho abruptly lifted his head and looked up at the other boy with another intense glare, tears streaming down his cheek. "I have to get back to Balamb Garden because Nida went to a fight he probably wont come back from. He just left me here! He's all I have and I'm not going to let him die! But I can't even make it to the damn ship because of these goddamn monsters, and I'd rather die trying then to give up and let him die with out trying!" Cho shouted angrily, then furiously wiping the tears from his eyes with his arm trying to force himself to stop crying.

Seifer didn't respond right away, he had no idea it was that big of a problem, what could he say to that? Is this why he was out here, putting himself in mortal danger and running the very real risk of being killed.

He really _shouldn't_ have cared, he usually wouldn't have, but despite his objections this time he did. Maybe it was the 4 years of boredom that he spent not doing anything at all that drove him to persist. Yeah that was it, he was bored...yeah, that sounded right. "Come on, Let's go find that...whatever the hell your out here for." Seifer gave another defeated sigh and dropped his head. He couldn't believe he was doing this.

"R-Really?"

"There are a hell of a lot stronger monsters out here, you can't even handle a weak one."

A bright smile crept across Cho's face, he couldn't stop himself from nearly jumping on Seifer as he gave him tight hug. "Thank you!"

This was...unexpected. What was with this kid, one minute he was lashing out at him, the next he was hugging him? And what was with that look on his face? He was smiling, really smiling, really, really smiling in a child like manner. "Yeah, Whatever, just get off me." Seifer placed a hand on Cho's forehead and tried to prey him away, that was a really tight grip.

It looked like it was him and the kid, Fujin and Raijin had already left back when Seifer declared they were leavening. They were long gone, and it would take too long to find them in this maze, they'd just get lost and be bate for monsters.

Finally Cho let go, turning the only way of finding that red thing he had to go on, which was east, and trusting his general sense of direction .

! - ! - !

They had been traveling for an hour before they really got anywhere in the maze like settings. Cho took the lead, Seifer defending him through out the many battles that varied from weak fangs to Marlboros. the object in question couldn't have been to much farther since the path they were on now was going completely strait.

"Ok, that was pretty cool." Cho admitted with the reluctance that came when defending one's own pride by not wanting to admit being wrong. "And you are _kinda_ strong."

Seifer rolled his eyes and pushed Cho, causing the boy to stumble to the side and into another one of the colorful pillars that made up the place. "Your an annoying little brat, you talk so big for someone so small. When you can beat Behemoth on your own, then you can talk to me about how strong you think I am."

"We you wouldn't have had to fight it in the first place if you would have just listened to me." In typical Cho fashion, he wanted to sneak around some of the larger monsters since he was good at it and it was just easier then fighting. Seifer didn't. "Work smart not hard you idiot."

Seifer gave the boy a swift punch to the back of the head, about to chastise him for calling him an idiot when something else tore at his attention "Whoa!" Seifer felt a sudden lapse in ground while taking his next step, he almost fell over the edge of something when the rocky earth broke off into a deep hole But Cho managed to grabbed his coat and pulled him back.

"We're here." He said sarcastically, now that Seifer wasn't endanger of falling anymore Cho let go of the coat and immediately ran over to the edge of what they had just come across. It was just as he thought it would be a large hole in the ground, about 5 feet down that now made sense considering the perspective he'd been looking at it when he surveyed it from the roof of the care he stole. A ship, the Ragnaork lay on it's side propped up on it's left wing, explaining the red he saw, and the antenna protruding from the top and leaning against the sides of the hole.

Luckily the side door was facing up.

"You were talking about _this _ship?" Seifer knelt down to get a closer look. This was the ship he thought it was, so why was it here? Didn't Squall and his teammates have it? So what was it doing in the ground? Cho brought them all the way out here, he should be able to explain it.

"You didn't know that there are 3 of these ships? All of them were used to carry sorceress Adel's seal into space." Cho told in his matter of factly tone that he always used when explaining something or trying to make a sale. "I guess this would be number 2... well, we didn't come out this far to stand here, lets go already." Though he was still somewhat hurt he was the first to go, fearlessly jumping down in to the hole with little more perpetration then a step back. With a small sound of expelled breath, Cho landed on the red metal just above the protruding wing.

"Of course _you_ would just jump in, like you know what the hell's down there." Seifer quickly followed, nearly landing on top of Cho when he landed with a sense of gracefulness. Taking a quick look around just to make sure nothing would just jump out at him, Seifer walked over to the door that looked as if it was embedded in the floor from this angle. "Where did it come from? And if they were used to carry Adel up there, why didn't they come back down." He asked, taking hold of the handle and pulling the door open cautiously.

"It came down with the Lunar Cry." Cho, adjusting his stance to keep balance on the slanted surface, Cho leaned forward and peered into ship, he was a little surprised to see the lights were on. And it didn't look like took too much damage from the fall on the outside, the monsters shielded most of the impact. "And I guess they were all attacked by monsters and killed the crew off of something like that." Cho was the first to jump in, finding it extremely awkward now that everything was on it's side and he landed on a wall.

"Monsters huh, great." Safer snorted sarcastically, climbing down into the hole and landing beside Cho.

With out hesitation Cho climbed over the protruding door frame that was only in his way now that it was on the ground and moved in to the next room. He aligned himself carefully on the railings and held on to the chain links of the bridge itself for balance. Seeing it was the only way forward, Seifer followed by the same means while trying his best to look around the room.

"I wonder if it still works...I really hope so, there's no way I can fix this thing..." Cho's thoughts were interrupted when Seifer elbowed him softly in the side "What?"

"Shhhhh...Look down."

He did as Seifer said and looked down, not seeing anything that would warrant for them to stop and pay attention to it. "I don't see anything."

"Damnit kid, I mean _really_ look. That light--" Seifer indicated the one of the florescent lights positioned in the crevasse between the wall and the floor "--is shining directly on the floor...I mean wall, whatever the hell it is. The point is it's still dark." Seifer found that too strange to be nothing.

Directly below them was that dark spot Seifer was talking about, it was odd for a surface to be directly in front of a light and not be illuminated. Was it even possible?

"Your over reacting." Cho reassured him as he reached into his pocket, shifting around until he found what he was looking for and drew out the object, a coin. "Watch." He extended his hand out and dropped the coin, watching it fall towards the floor (which really was the wall) below. As soon as the coin touched it, the dark spot jumped up like a splash in water. With out warning a long spike shot out of the dark spot with amazing speed.

"Whoa!" Cho and Seifer both retreated back a step in the opposite directions as the spike sliced through the bridge with pin point precision. "Oh crap!" Cho held on tightly, shuttering from the thunderous sound that came as his side of the bridge broke apart from Seifer's and swung down ward towards the ground. The other half of the bridge was forced to bend with a horrible creaking sound, becoming hedges that could only bend so far, and Cho's decent stopped stopping just above the ground.

The blackness on the ground took the form of a dark wolf that immediately lunged at Seifer who's side of the bridge was suspended in place as if was still connected to the other half. "!" As soon as the Shadow got in to the air, it changed shape again. From it's head grew a large blade shaped almost like a wide boomerang that was easily larger then it's whole body. Seifer pushed off the bridge, just narrowly avoiding the monster, watching the Shadow tare through the metal bridge and burst through it right where Seifer had been. Seifer landed and immediately stepped back with reflexes flaring as the two halves fell to the ground in front of him. 'What is that thing?'

It was amazingly fast, changing shape changing shape in mid-air in to a shapeless mass of liquid and then sling shooting itself in the opposite direction toward Seifer. It's body seem to divide as it came on to Seifer, a rain of long, thin spikes followed. Seifer strifed backwards, shifting to the left to avoid one that grazed his neck and shoulder like a bullet, then to the right just narrowly slicing off a strand of hair, then quickly moving backwards to evade a torrent of them. His back hit the wall, just barely the last one grazing the tip of his nose and falling into the pool dark that had gathered on the floor. From the pool the wolf reformed, directly in front of him.

"Kid, what's your name?" Seifer called, not looking at him as if not to draw attention to Cho's presence.

It seemed like an odd time to ask for introductions but..."My name's Maru but everyone calls me Cho. What's yours?" He asked quietly.

"Seifer." He said plainly, drawing his gunblade. "Listen to me cause I'm only going to say this once. Get out of here _now_, go to the next room or something and lock the door." Seifer thrust his blade at forward at the shadow, it jumped back evasively, crouching down slightly and leaping in to the air, landing agilely on the flat side of his sword. Seifer drew back his arm, pulling his sword towards him punched the creature, knocking it backwards to the ground.

Cho complied with a small nod, climbing up pulling himself up higher, quickly fitting his fingers into the chain links and scrambling towards the top. The Shadow seemed to notice him then, and realizing being smaller and retreating he must have been the weaker. It completely ignored Seifer and ran in the opposite direction to Cho. "Where do you think your going?" Seifer wasn't going to make it that easy to get away, with his sword pressed downcast and his hand extended he cast a spell. "Flare!"

A sudden gathering of red energy built around the retreating form with an explosion that burst through the shadow's body and a red shockwave that tore through it, knocking it down to the ground in a spray of black liquid.

By then Cho made it to the top of the bridge, and again the fact that the ship was on it's side made it self apart. Before he would have been able to walk to the exit, now there was a large break he had to cross. 'I can make this...' he to a small step back and then jumped over small gap, diving through the double doors that thankfully opened automatically... He fell head first in to a much larger gap, down the floor (The wall actually) in the next room, 'Ow!' He ended up landing on his stomach, with the air knocked out of his lungs.

With a drew in deep breath, tilting his head as he looked up at the sideways lift that lead to the cockpit, there was no way he could get up there with the lift like that.

No way he could lock the door anyway, he started to wish he hadn't left so he could at lest help Seifer, and not be stranded here...But Cho wasn't completely useless, and if it came to it, he'd make a good decoy at lest. Anyway…. He didn't have much choice on where to go now. He could probably make it back in to the room where Seifer was, or go into the passenger area. And there was the door that led to a stairwell descending to the hanger, but unfortunately there was no way he could make it to the hanger since the door was even higher then the lift was, he couldn't reach it...

Unless…

Cho walked along the overturned walls, making his way over the doorway in to the passenger room, 'Wait a minute...if I remember this right...' He climbing up a row of two chairs surely mounted on the overturned floor. He was brought face to face a small divot that served as a handle to a hatch barely visible to anyone that didn't know where it was. It was a passage that led from this room down to the hanger used for servicing the lift up to the cockpit. There was no real point of going to he hanger, except that he felt safer there, and he could more easily reach Seifer if the need arose. Besides, he couldn't really do anything else but look around.

'Yeah, this is it.' Cho pulled open the dark hatch and climbed into the rather small square, each previously off light came on subsequently one after another to illuminate the path now that the hatch had been opened. The usually downward sloping was a sharp incline now, Cho had to use the seemingly thousands of wires and small handles that opened up compartments to pull himself upward. It wasn't to hard from him since he was used to going through narrow spaces and could easily lift his body weight with his arms, he only weigh about 90 pounds. "I knew it would be here..." He gradually passed the lift currently above him, easily making it to the second hatch the led to the hanger. It was much easier to travel through this one because if the ship was right side up it would have been sloping sharply downward. Now that the ship was side ways, the path was completely horizontal.

'Maybe I can get to the cockpit from here...' He reasoned to himself, crawling quickly through the ventilation sized passage. 'If I jump right, I can maybe make it--'

...It happened right as he made to the end of tunnel, as soon as Cho climbed out of the shaft something overwhelming bombarded his senses. It was an attractive, manipulating aroma that made him want to find the source, maybe if he had been thinking rationally he would have thought this as some type of attack.

'What...what is that?' With out even thinking he pushed open the hatch serving as he exit and climbed up, pulling himself out of it... only to stand up and find a shadow waiting for him. He managed to easily contained himself from flinching or shouting from the surprise, mainly because he noticed that the source of that sent was coming from it.

This had to be an some type of attack or spell he was under. Why couldn't he seem to move?

And strangely enough it didn't immediately attack him either, it watched him like a predator about to pounce on it's prey. Cho easily could tell something was different about this shadow, it was larger then the ones before. The other one came up just past his waist in size, this one easily was his size, maybe taller. The other ones were more of an extremely dark purple in color, this Shadow's fur was pure black, and the most imposing feature was the eyes. Those other ones had red pupils, this one's eyes actually glowed crimson in a hypnotic way. It was terrifying, just watching it made him freeze in fear...that's why he couldn't move, now it made a little more sense. It was those eyes that did it.

"Yo--your…not like the other ones…" Cho managed to choke out, trying desperately to move any part of his body, but he was so overwhelmed with and an unexplained fear that he couldn't even raise his voice to anything over just above a whisper. And that smell, it was driving him insane! What was it about a simple smell that caused it to be so drawing, so manipulative that it was the only thing that could rival the fear. But enough rational though pushed through all of that for him to notice a few other key factors.

The wolf slowly circled him, moving even closer with each pass, sniffing him, memorizing his scent.

Something in Cho's mind managed to click together, an idea, more like a hunch.

"Your…a GF?"

"GF?…." It's voice was deep, smooth, oddly provocative. It didn't sound like much attention was being paid.

This shadow was a dog, or at lest that's what he thought it was, and dogs were anything like Chocobos. Which if they weren't he was completely off about this, then he recognized a few things he'd noticed about the shadow. He knew enough to tell the way this shadow was walking at the moment was not the way a normal canine walked, it was using more muscles then necessary and probably didn't even know it. He also noticed that every few breaths the shadow opened it's mouth a little, that easily meant that the canine was hot and had a dry mouth. The way it's tail was barely moving and seemed undecided between staying between natural or between it's legs. Plus the fur was half matted and dripping sweat that wasn't completely clear, it was more cloudy. Now the only reason a wolf was completely black fur would have cloudily sweat is if it was sweating out something, something like pheromones.

If he didn't know any better Cho would think that this GF was in heat, it was a dog after all. "Wh-at are you going to do to me?" Cho asked, he managed to shake his head. "Ok…whatever...Just don't eat me. Come on, I taste horrible."

The wolf looked at him questioningly, then stepped forward to a dangerously close range, looking Cho in the eye before burying his face in to Cho's neck and giving him a soft lick. 'Me and my mouth, now he wants to see what I taste like.' Cho flinched, wincing as if it was painful, or in the anticipation of pain that he hoped wouldn't come.

The shadow licked him again, apparently he liked the taste, but that wasn't what he was planning to do….at lest not yet.

"Hey…you haven't eaten me yet." Cho tilted his head away from the one pressed against him. "You seem pretty smart so maybe we can talk about this first, let's be reasonable." If it was anything Cho knew how to do it was talk his way out of things, maybe if he kept talking... "There must be a lot of better tasting things around here then me. There's monster not to far from here that looks tender...Am I getting anything here?"

"I don't want to talk.." The shadow continued to sniff Cho, running his nose down the boy's chest, along his sides, and then halfway down his lower body before bringing it back up to Cho's neck. He really was memorizing the scent.

"Ok…What _do_ you want…" The boy asked. "Anything, you name it, as long as it doesn't involve me being eaten." The fear that had immobilized him was starting to fade, Cho found it easier to move now that that the shadow wasn't looking at him with those glowing eyes.

"What I want is you." He replied coldly, pushing his head over the boy's shoulder and continued sniffing.

"No way, that's non-negotiable…But uh...I'm _sure_ we can work something else out." Cho unfortunately thanks to a misconception thought they was still talking about eating.

The shadow didn't move an inch, he just pressed his head against the back of Cho's neck, this was starting to get confusing. "It's you or you life."

Huh? That didn't make any sense? How could...

That's when Cho finally realized what he was talking about, and he realized that scent driving him crazy couldn't be anything other then pheromones. He was right, this shadow really was in heat...Cho really wasn't sure of the concept of how this heat was effecting him when such a thing usually didn't extend to other species, but on the other hand this wasn't just a regular dog, possibly not one at all.

No wonder he was drawn to it so much.

Cho had almost said yes off of that factor alone, it was that manipulative, but he restrained himself out of fear. "Uh….Your giving me a choice, that's a step in the right direction. I was always a fan of the diplomatic approach, smart people take the diplomatic approach, I was right about you. Now Let's see if we can broaden those choices up a little, maybe add a third option?"

Maybe this boy didn't understand what was really going on here, what he was dealing with. That did add a level of amusement to this whole thing. "Alright, I'll give you a third option."

Cho smiled, he couldn't believe this was actually working. "Ok What is it?"

"The first two options combined."

Cho had to give it to him, this was one smart and very egger wolf, he wasn't working this shadow over, he was just being played with. "Ok, how about I get somebody your species." Cho offered.

The wolf just gave a small growl, making it apparent that either way the wolf was going to get what he wanted. And he wanted Cho preferably living.

Cho was running out of options, his mind inanely started racing for an excuse or a stall. "How about we get to know each other first? Where did you come from?"

The shadow gave him another growl, this time shifting forward and nudging him a little.

'Well, he has soft fur, I can say that much about him…Well, if this doesn't work, I'm screwed (literally)' "I'd be horrible in bed. You're a GF, how about we junction and then I find somebody much better. Then you can you can used my body and…you know. That way, everybody's happy." That other person was obviously Nida, and he wasn't really plan to let this whole plan be gone through with. But if it came to it and the wolf used his body, he got a strong GF, and sex with Nida, plus he got to stay alive. The down side really wasn't to bad.

First, the wolf barely if at all knew what a GF was save the word junction, from there he could generalize at lest partially what it was. But he was actually considering it. He really wanted Cho who was undeniably appealing to him, but if he did it the way he was currently planning on it would be very unconformable to Cho.

He found it much more enjoyable to himself if his mate was enjoying it to, in a way some what similar to Cho he focused more so on other senses then just the obvious, Cho's prerogative was sight, his was sound. He wanted to hear every pleasurable sound this human could make, it was just part of the desire he was feeling. Something so appealing such as that most likely wouldn't happen if they continued on this course of action of forcing.

But on the other hand, he hadn't had a mate…ever and he was at lest a few hundred years old. This heat was almost unbearable, it made him extremely attracted to certain people, it was like a growing sensitivity. And he was attracted to Cho. That didn't necessarily mean he would be to someone else no matter how much he wanted to mate.

Well since he was so attracted to Cho, he found himself willing to give him some leverage in how this happened. Either way it was going to happen, he had waited too long for it not too. He didn't want to hurt Cho, but that didn't mean he wouldn't, he just wouldn't like it. If this avoided him from hurting Cho, which he would have done if he went ahead and did what he was originally planning, he was for it.

The Shadow backed away from him with slow steps.

'Man I am such a genus!' Cho's mental congratulation to himself was abruptly cut of by the feeling he was forgetting something '…Oh man, I almost forgot about Seifer, he needs help.' Strange how Seifer entered his mind at a time like this, he should have remembered him when he first saw the shadow.

"Fine." An unwilling compromised expression spread across the wolf's face as he looked up at Cho with those glowing red eyes.

They still they haunted him, immobilizing him with fear. That fear only increased when the red seemed to surround his body like an aura even though it really wasn't, he would have asked what was happening if he could mange to get a word out of mouth.

The Shadow walked towards him casually, then suddenly leaped at him making Cho flinch, coming closer and closer until it seemed the Shadow had jumped right through him like a ghost.

He saw a rush of black being pulled over his eyes, by the time it passed the wolf was gone completely…Or so he though until he felt the Shadow, moving inside of his mind through the junction. He felt the wolf's junction becoming deeper as if he was possessing Cho.

Strangely enough The first thing that came from the wolf's new connection was the libido, it was overwhelming at first, so much that Cho had to sit down.

'I see why your so anxious…If this is going to work out your going to have to work with me a little. Alright?'

(Hn….)

'Man this is making it really hard to concentrate……' Cho mentally groaned, his body quickly became flushed, he was already starting to sweat porously and he could hardly breathe. Not to mention he had an erection so hard that it hurt. He was sweating out the same pheromones, and that scent was only adding to it. He found it amazing that the wolf was able to control himself this long, because he was a second away from giving in to the Shadow's first offer. 'Damn you, what the hell did you do to me?'

Until he Seifer came.

He pulled open the sideways door to storage in the next room, sliding down what used to be the floor turned wall and landing next to Cho in front of the open hatch. He looked over Cho as he sheeted his Gunblade, seeing besides being evidently shaken up the boy seemed alright. "I was looking all over for you." Seifer wiped away a streak of blood dripping down his forehead. "You--..."

Seifer's voice trailed off, nose flared up when he finally noticed the scent of pheromones nearly coating Cho. Seifer shook his head and blinked a few time before disregarding it as best he could.

"Are you alright?" Cho asked distractedly.

"I'm alive ain't I?" Seifer looked away, he was clearly being effected because he was getting extremely agitated.

That's when the new found GF began to stir, he apparently didn't want to wait any longer. 'No not him!' Cho protested but it seemed like even he wasn't listening to himself.

(You want him.)

'No, _You_ want him'

(I want you.)

'You've made that clear. You're the only reason I'm feeling..._this_.'

(Then let me be the one to relieve you)

'...Yeah…..Hey wait a minute!' Cho shook his head frantically. "You almost had me there for a minute. The faster we get this done, the faster you can get off. Not until then, Got it?'

(We?)

'Yes _We_. We're junctioned aren't we, that means me and you are partners. We.' Most of what he was saying had come from Carbuncle, it seemed more of it stuck with him then he realized. And the shadow found that some how appealing, or at lest acceptable. Whatever Cho was talking about needing to get done clearly involved danger, he didn't like that idea, he wanted to protect Cho. He wanted to make the boy officially his, so it would end up being a 'you mess with him you mess with me' type of thing whether Cho liked it or not.

'Got it?'

(Fine. And don't speak to me as if I'm one of you humans. I'm only helping you because it suits me.)

'Uh, Alright then. Ready?'

(Fine.)

'Then let's go.'


	11. Chapter 10: Saving home part 2

Chapter 10: Saving Home part 2

The 3 GFs surrounded the possessed Garden which was propelling itself though the water heading east towards Esther, it's projected path.

"Why would it be going to Esther?" Bahamut asked almost to himself, he barely understood anything that was happening and he didn't expect to understand that, at lest not until the Shadow made it to Esther, something he didn't intend to let happen.

A thin black spike shot out of the side of the Garden with an unexpected speed, it almost caught Bahamut off guard "!" but reflexes ensuing he shifted his head to the left just in time to avoid it by mere inches. "..."

The black coating on the Garden spasmed once, a single ripple traveling along the surface before it started moving around under the metal of the Garden, it was similar to watching oil through a window. Needless to say when seeing this no one knew what to expect next.

"How are we supposed to attack this thing?" Ifrit asked uneasily, watching what used to be many shadows, now merging into a single large one moving across the Garden's surface as if it was a coating as common as paint.

"Your worried to much about hitting Squall." Griever didn't hastate, rushing forward with outstretched wings from his point on the south side.

Another long spike shot out like bullet to intercept him that Griever easily avoided it, but he had a much harder time avoid a wall of them that rose. He was forced to stopped his advance hurriedly shift his course to the side, just barely making it out of the path of the attack. It had come much to fast for him to completely avoid, of the two spikes still managed to hit him in his side, the points were so precisely sharp that it went completely through that part of his body with no resistance at all.

Griever winced with a growl of pain. Something that thin shouldn't have hurt so much, when he paid attain to them he knew why it did hurt so much. He could feel the shadow's extension stirring, cutting him from the inside with the shape sifting ability put to full use with an array of pulsing needles rising from the original.

With a low roar Griever took hold of the two spike, breaking them off and forcibly pull them out, dropping them down in to the ocean below. It didn't need to be said that a direct attack would work, even if they could mange to get in close enough to actually touch it'd be curtain death. "Damnit..."

Ifrit clinched his fist and every muscle in his body tightened, inanely he began to grow hotter until his body burst into an aura of raging flames. That fire discharged from all sides, falling toward the shadows like a wave that washed over the Garden in it's entirety. The surface water sizzled under the heat as the flames hit the liquid, causing it evaporate in to a thick cloud of white steam on contact, adding another smaller level of damage to the attack.

It countered with it's usual speed, instead of a small spike a thick pillar of the same strange liquid like substance came flying upwards from behind the cover of quickly dissipating steam, notably having to pull some of the shadow's cover from other areas to do so. The even though it was a larger amount the speed was impossibly fast now, it struck and swallowed Ifrit in the sticky substance before he think of avoiding it. As soon as it had him it began to squeeze from all sides, inhibiting any movement and stopping any chance for breathing since it had his whole body. 'How...is damn this thing so fast! Urraaaaaaaaa!' Next he felt the spikes, thicker then before, protruding from substance and piercing his skin.

It was seconds from drawing blood when a rush of intense flames emitted from Ifrit and blasted through the black appendage holding on to him. Forcing that part of the merged shadows to pull back in to the Garden, with out wasting a second the same pillar shot up again on the opposite side of the structure, this time going for Bahamut.

It's attack rate was amazing, they could barely get one in otherwise.

"It's too fast." The dragon was ready with a Mega flare, firing the shining silver beam just as the shadow covered him. It burned right through the Shadow's attack, hollowing out the sticky substance of darkness that rose against him and striking the side of the Garden resulting in a powerful explosion. But it was quickly stifled by the merged shadow pulling what part of itself it had thrown out back and minimizing the damage. "It...didn't do anything."

"We don't have time to stop and worry about it! Just keep attacking." Griever, being the slowest of the three only had time to actually charge an attack while Bahamut had it distracted, he had to make it count, so he used Shockwave Pulsar. The posed Garden was surrounded in sphere of almost completely transparent white energy, instead of using a lot his energy to lift something as heavy as the Garden in to the air, he forced it in to the sub-dimension used when summoning.

The merged shadow was surrounded in two vortexes of the same white energy that coved it at the start, one under and one above rotating into two conflicting directions. A shockwave propagated outward right before the energy detonated and everything went completely white in a blinding flash.

The Garden came back into existence slightly different in appearance then before, the merged shadow was stirred erratically over the Garden's surface, disoriented because of Griever's attack which had struck a weak point. It wasn't exactly clear what that weak point was, it had been an non-elemental attack.

"That...that worked?" Ifrit looked at the monster, then at Griever. It just worked? How? "Griever, I think--!"

A shockwave like ring proliferated outward from the top of the Garden, it came like a flash, striking all three of them hard enough to knock them out of the air. Bahamut and Griever landed with little problem, taking no more damage from the fall then the burning sting of saltwater flooding the large gash caused by the attack. Ifrit on the other hand was taking heavy damage, he could handle small amounts of water such as rain or even from a shower, but this was an ocean and in retrospect a bad place for Ifrit to join in a fight.

"Ifrit!" With a flash of worry shooting through his mind Griever dived beneath the surface and swam furiously to the sinking Ifrit. He could see the golden eyes winching in growing pain, the idle body struggling slightly since Ifrit obviously didn't know how to swim, the mouth falling open as if he wanted to say something but couldn't... And Griever was sure that Ifrit couldn't hold his breath. With haste Griever wrapped his arms around the fire GF and dragging him out of the water.

Ifrit coughed violently as soon as his lungs felt air, gasping with a series of deep breaths. Seeing that Ifrit was alright, Griever let him go. "Thanks." It seemed just as quickly as Ifrit spoke his expression shifted from a gracious one to a fierce one, he pushed Griever backwards just before a line of spikes shot outward coming just in-between them. Neither of them were fast enough to avoid the next ones.

"!"

"!" They both were struck in the same place before they had a chance to see it coming, the thin spikes thrusting into Griever and Ifrit's left sides just above the waist. With the blade on his tail Griever severed the spike before it could go force it's way any farther in to him, Ifrit did the same with his claws just as quickly and the both of them pulled out the intruding spear. Which turned out to be an extremely painful, this small spike was doing more internal damage then they realized. It was also slowing their reaction times by weakening muscles in the area where it struck.

"Do any one of you know what the hell these things are?" Ifrit snarled angrily, watching the spot where he'd been stuck slowly turn black. "And how are they doing this? Is this poison?"

"It's not poison." Bahamut dived head first in to the water in an attempt to use it as cover, another Mega flare charging in his mouth. But even there the shadow could attack. A wave of the dark substance came rushing towards him only slowed barely by the water, spitting open like mouth that came to fast to evade, surrounding him from above and below, closing on him like a snapping jaw.

Almost in a flinching motion Bahamut fired the Mega Flare, sending the shining blast in to the source of the darkness. The water around him bubbled and sizzled profusely as the ray burned through the merged shadow's appendage, just barely passing through the large ring under the Garden and striking the hull above it. Another powerful explosion erupted though the flames were subcommand by the water large waves were created on the surface from the force.

'This is my only chance...' Ifrit thought to himself as he attacked with Hell Fire from above at the same time as Bahamut. A large burning meteor came into existence, raising from just above the ocean's surface. Ifrit cuffed his hands together, curling his body back and then following through, hammering his fist into the burning rock and knocking into a rapid free fall into the Garden. Everything above water was covered in rage flames and pounded into the front side of the structure with a strong impact.

Though it had been hit by two fierce attacks at once, the monster show little sign of damage.

The Shadow countered more intensely then before as if it was agitated for some reason, the top layer of the substance expanded off the Garden like an explosion, sending a wall in all directions in a growing sphere. It was unavoidable, it's speed and range were tremendous, Griever, Ifrit and Bahamut were surrounded by the Shadow's shockwave in a only a few seconds.

! - ! - !

"Seifer, a little higher." Cho called down with a small bit of aggravation tenting his voice.

Seifer was lifting, or attempting to at lest, Cho up towards the lift's opening that led to the cockpit, the only route to the cockpit. Challenging wasn't a good enough word for this, since the ship was on it's side there was no even ground. What had used to be the floor was now the wall, meaning what used to be the ceiling was now also a wall. It only left a narrow opening to stand in.

They had partially found their way around this problem, Seifer planted his gunblade into the wall, and by wall a mean the actual ceiling, then climbed on to it and attempted to lift Cho into the hole the lift used as an entrance. Cho was amazed at how strongly made Seifer's weapon was.

"I can't go any higher." Seifer refrained from shouting, already lifting the boy up as far as he could reach while maintaining his balance. "Your a heavy little brat."

"Do something, I'm almost there." Cho was only about 6 inches from it, that's all he needed and he could do the rest. He was trying his best not to look down, and to ignore the fact that he only had to waver an inch in any direction and he'd take a very painful fall since standing on Seifer's shoulders wasn't the most secure way.

Seifer thought about it for a moment, there was no way either of them could jump, there wasn't enough support or space to make a decent one…But soon after he dismissed that thought an idea made itself present, one that could work.

"Float." Seifer cast the simple spell on Cho, causing wings of light to appear on the boy's back and allowing his hands to act as a ground for the spell to repel him from.

The boy was lifted upward, easily clearing the few inches and climbing through the oddly positioned hole.

"Your smarter then you look." Cho slid down the slanted floor and landed on the glass of the one cockpit's windshields. '...' He was uneasy about being on glass, he wasn't sure the darkness he was seeing was one of those shadows or just a lack of light.

"The only thing smart about you is your mouth." Seifer shot back, finding it much easier to climb up now that he didn't have to help Cho. He'd have to leave his gunblade behind for now.

"Yeah right." Cho made his way cautiously along the windshield until he reached the dashboard at the head of the room, he needed to use the float spell for help climbing up to the pilot seat centered between three others.

"What the hell are you doing?" Seifer tilted his head to the side questingly, watching Cho squirm and move around seemingly erratically around the seat.

"What dose it look like!" Cho shouted back with frustration.

"Like your loosening your damn mind."

"Shut up." Cho seemed to finally make his way into the desired position, sitting the right way in a seat mounted in the wall which was not easy, he had to buckle himself in to keep from falling. Though in a strange position, Cho still managed to work the controls he knew mostly how to work. 'I should know this...yeah, I remember this...I can do this...' He thought to himself, leaning forward to flip 3 switches that triggered three lights meaning different things, finally pressing a button labeled ignition.

A soft clicking sound came before the engine tried to start, and after a few seconds it completely stalled. "Come on! Don't do this to me now!" Cho didn't know to much about this ship yet except basic flying skills, so he had no idea what the problem could be. But after watching Nida so many times he could take a few guesses if he had too.

"Do you know what your doing?" Seifer asked, he didn't feel safe with Cho doing things up there.

Cho's response was distracted:"A little bit." he was still to busy trying to get the Ragnaork to start. 'Come on...what is it?' After a few seconds of thought he checked the fuel gauge, '33', which should be more then enough to start the engine.

Seifer sighed. "Hyne I hope so."

Cho held the adjusting draw switch to the ships thrusts, revving them all the way up an a attempt to get some gas to the engine.

It worked, the ship started on the next try. 'Yes!'

Now came the hard part.

Seeing that it would be stupid to stand their if Cho was about to attempt to move the ship, Seifer made his way into a seat and buckled up in preparation. "Man I hope you don't get me killed."

Cho laughed lightly, "It's nice to know you have so much confidence in me." Despite his laughter, Cho was nervous, even more so when he pushed forward on the throttle with a little force and the side of the ship nearly instantaneously began grinding against the rock surround it.

"Come on Cho, this damn thing is in a hole it can barely fit into, how do you think your gonna move it?"

Seifer was right, that approach wasn't going to work. "Ok, plan B." Cho smirked sheepishly, he was a little too excited...

"Ok, what are you thinking?" Seifer rubbed his head and sighed, he didn't like that look 'Damnit he's gonna get me killed.'

Cho pushed up a red cover on the side of the throttle, taking the safety off the guns. "Nothing." He gave no warning before he opening fire on the rock blocking their way.

"!" Seifer flinched, grabbing on to his seat uneasily "You think you could have given me some kinda warning before you just started shooting things.

"Yeah, I could have." The ground at Tear's point wasn't completely solid, those strange pillars ran deep under the surface and from what he'd witnessed before they were combustible. Of course he didn't have that in mind when he started this, he'd take any chance he could get to use the ships weapons since Nida refused to let him use them.

So barrage of bullets drilled into the wall, managing to eat away enough of it to reach two of the strange pillars rooted in front of the ship, the first shot caused a loud explosion from the detention, throwing a rain of small rocks and smoke onto the windshield. It managed to open the ground and extended the hole surrounding them.

After a few more _extremely_ close blasts, the hole became wide enough for the ship to fall into a remotely level position. From there Cho was easily able to lift the Ragnaork into the air. "Still think I'm stupid now?" Cho looked over to him with a confident smirk on his face.

"Nope, just crazy." Now that he wasn't worried about Cho blowing them apart Seifer place his feet up on the dashboard and lifted his hands behind his head. Watching the landscape roll past them with increasing speed. Cho seemed to know what he was doing, it wasn't like Seifer could do any better.

"Ok, where's the Garden?" Cho asked.

"I was wrong, dumber then I thought."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Seifer sighed, his eyes drifting over some of the controls on the dashboard in front of them. "How much gas do you have in this thing?" He asked.

Cho looked over at the gauge, he didn't think of that. " …Not a lot I guess."

"Uh-huh. And how many weapons do you have?"

"Well…20 bullets…..and that's it." Cho realized what Seifer was talking about, a lot of things he should have taken in a count in the first place. "So what am I suppose to do about it?"

"What do you think you should do idiot." Seifer snorted sarcastically.

"I could go to Esther..."Cho's eyes downcast when he realized what was wrong with that thought. "But they wouldn't give me anything, I couldn't even get a car."

That raised a few questions Seifer decided to wait until later to ask about. 'Great, this kid's a pro thief.' Seifer pulled his feet of the dashboard and let his hands drop lazily to his sides. "Since I'm along for this too I might as well help you out, _again_." Seifer unbuckled himself and stood with a stretch. "Go back to the Lunatic Pandora."

"That big black thing, Why?" Cho looked back at him, reluctantly turning the ship around since he'd been heading away from it from the moment he ascended. He wasn't too experienced with the controls yet so that turn much like every turn he'd made was much wider then it should have been. He wasn't fluent in the full maneuvering capabilities.

"If Esther hasn't cleaned the place out yet then you can still get a few supplies from it." Seifer knew the condition of the machine, but he also knew where everything had been stocked inside, a lot of useable things could have missed damage because everything was always stored inside of the outer wall. That wall was usually protected by shields but since it was no longer active they wouldn't have to worry about that.

"Hn..." Cho did as Seifer told him and he headed back in the opposite direction toward the Lunatic Pandora. He told himself it was a good opportunity to break in the engines again before going in to battle, after being out of service for 17 years nothing was running smoothly, and he could take the chance to look over the manual. Which he so desperately needed to do, if their was one...there had to be some type of instructions right?

"Ok I'm here, where am I going?" Cho asked, coming up on the towering Pandora with enough room so that even he could make a turn when needed.

Seifer leaned over the dashboard, pointing something out. "Down near the bottom, you see where it's gold instead of black--" The bottom of the Lunatic Pandora had a stair like formation, those _stairs _were colored gold and were smaller then the rest of the structure. "-- Go down to the second one from the top." What he was leading Cho to was a relatively small gate could be seen, it was just a little bigger then the Ragnaork itself.

The ship's nose titled downward and they started a steady decent.

"You do know how to do this right?" Seifer asked.

"Not really."

"Damnit, why the hell are you flying this thing!"

They wouldn't have a problem getting in to it because the shields were down, but crashing while doing so would be another thing. But Cho as usual was cocky and knew he could do it.

"Slow down." Seifer said nervously, seeing that they were completely out of any safe position for entry. "I got it." Cho waved him off confidently.

At this angle they would run it to the wall or break of both wings, and that wouldn't be good for the cockpit.

"Slow down Damnit!" Seifer yelled, nearing the hatch with out any drop in speed. If Seifer didn't know any better he'd say they were actually going faster.

"I Got it! Calm down!" Cho shouted back. They were so close now that slowing wouldn't do any good, and to Seifer's relief the ship came into nearly perfect alignment just before entering the dark and narrowly passage.

The sides of the Ragnaork scraped against the tight wall, creating a loud screeching sound and a storm sparks before Cho could get everything strait. "See, I'm getting better."

"If you get me hurt doing stuff like this, It's gonna be your ass."

Cho could feel the Shadow junction to him stir a bit when Seifer said that but he managed to repress any of the wolf's libido among other things seeping into him this time. A junction truly went both ways.

The path lead in to a larger room, the charged walls were lined with large tanks and tubes that most likely held fuel and weapons. While the center of the room was completely hollow up to the hole in the roof down to one in the floor, the cords and wires that managed to survive the fire where dangling loosely around with mangled pieces of metal that protruded and hung from everything.

"Whoa!" Cho looked around an amazement, he wasn't sure what this place looked like before since the last time he was here he was in the fire that caused all of this damage, but he was sure it wasn't supposed to be this. "What did this?"

"A dieing sorceress, couple hundred solders and a few bombs." Seifer spoke of it plainly with his attention more focused on other things, like spotting a place to land nearby. He pointed out a suitable one to Cho, it was right in front of them, a long protruding terrace that used to be a floor. "Right there." It was a preferable location because there was enough of it left to hold the ship's full length and support it's weight.

Cho nodded obediently and reduced the ships speed, stopping and settling easily over the spot just short of a wall he nearly ran into. "Got it." All he had to do now was let the automatic landing program take over.

"What now?"

Seifer peered out of the windshield, surveying his surroundings as if he was looking for something in particular. 'Hmm...' "I'm gonna go check something out..." He lifted himself off of the dashboard and heading over to the lift, leaving Cho by himself while he heading for the side door.

Cho didn't think much of it, Seifer probably knew what he was doing. 'Now where is it...' Cho unbuckled himself and looked around the whole control panel for some type of manual or pilot instructions, something of that nature. 'Maybe...' Cho dropped down on to his knees in front of a small compartment in front of the left co-pilot seat 'Here it is.' He found what he was looking for inside, and it ended up being much thicker then he expected. It was a binder filled with what looked like hundreds of papers in total about 4 inches thick labeled with the name of the ship.

Placing the heavy manual awkwardly under his arm, followed where Seifer had gone finding no reason to stay inside.

! - ! - !

'Man this thing is heavy...' Cho let himself fall to the ground with his back against one the ship's wheel, dropping the binder in to his lap. Not intending to read most of it, he scanned to the contents for the information he was looking for and then grazing through the manual until he reached the texts on combat controls and maneuvers. 'Heh heh.' He couldn't help but smirk at the thought that he'd actually get to use the ships weapons in an actual fight, even though he could barely fly.

Seifer gave him a sideways glance when he saw the look on his face, he was learning not to like it. "He's gonna do something stupid, I know it..." He mumbled to himself, walking over to a large tank positioned in front of the ship, it was about as large as the Ragnaork and almost as thick. It had been hidden by the interior walls, but now that they had been burned away it was completely visible and luckily escaped serious damage. Wrapped up and mounted on the wall the side, a white hose was attached used for siphoning fuel in and out of the container.

"What's that?" Cho didn't bother to look up, he just caught a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye while reading the pages in front of him.

Seifer pulled the hose toward the center of the ship, feeling around the steel underside around the area where the wheels had lowered for landing. "It's a Fuel tank, there are hundreds of these things around here." His hand brushed over a small grove just behind the third wheel, he immediately slipped his fingers into it and pulled it down. He opened up the small compartment revealing three oddly shaped wholes around a larger one, "Here it is."

Seifer lifted and hose up and attached it to the oddly shaped whole, soon after he heard the familiar sound of the fuel draining to the line. 'At lest that's still working.'

"Hey, how'd you know it was here?"

"Are you serious?"

Cho looked up at him, "Oh...oh yeah, I forgot about that."

Seifer rubbed his head, this kid didn't know something like that? Seifer had to admit, Cho was first person to forget what he did. "Yeah. Yeah."

Cho just shrugged and went back to reading.

Like it was nothing.

'What's with this kid?' Seifer locked in the hose to the fuel line so that it wouldn't fall off, take note of how heavy it was when something was actually being pumped through it. Normally Seifer would have complained about doing all of the work, but he didn't mind, he'd been bored enough actually want to do some work.

Besides Cho needed every second he could get to look over that manual if there was the remote chance it would help him be a better pilot. Plus, Seifer didn't want him to be involved in what he was going to do next, he wanted to be as far away as possible.

"Hey, where's the artillery storage?"

"Bottom of the ship around the middle." Cho lifted his arm and pointed out it's general direction, still keeping his eyes cast at the book. "It should pretty easy since it automatically unlocks when the ships parked."

"Hn..." Seifer stepped over the large hose and headed away from the ship. Just ahead was a small ramp connecting to one of many outlying ledges that had once been an entire floor, it all seemed stable enough so he really didn't have to worry about it falling threw under his weight. 'It should be...somewhere around here...' Seifer slid down the ramp easily enough, making his way to the outlaying ledge only about a few feet wide.

To his right was a wall completely burned through like most others, the space between the interior and exterior wall was lined with hatches where missiles resided and larger holes where he could see Glatting guns had once been mounted. 'Here it is.'

A few carts were still around, each built with large racks and groves built in carrying long black missiles, 10 in all. Others had machine gun rounds that where large enough only to be used for airships, some held energy packs for a rail guns and batteries.

Seifer took hold of the railing on the cart in front of him holding missiles, starting the task of pushing the cart back up the ramp. It wasn't easy at all, the cart alone was heavy enough with out it being fully loaded since it was created to be used with transport machinery, it was really hard but he preferred to do this alone. The thought of Cho and live ammunition together didn't go over well in his mind and he wanted to minimize the boy's contact with it, at lest while he was in the line of fire.

He had to shift his position around a few times on the way up, he finally made it back with his shoulder and half of his face pressed against it. He refrained from shouting out how heavy it was as he rolled the cart under the uplifted hose and under the Ragnaork, he quickly found the artillery storage Cho had directed him to.

Seifer pulled opened the large hatch and found a few gears and machine parts inside, a small lift lowered from it automatically, on which Seifer knowingly rolled the cart. From that point the whole process was automatic.

Seifer wordlessly headed back down the ramp again, returning momentarily pushing another chart full with 10 more missiles up the ramp with only a few strained grunts to announcing his presence.

Cho wasn't sure when he stopped paying attention to his reading and started watching Seifer, but he was amazed at how strong he was. He knew those missiles were far from light and the fact that he was pushing them uphill added to the difficulty. Seifer made it look plausible, as soon as he was on level ground he didn't look as if he was having any problem with it. Just as he did with the last Seifer rolled it underneath the hose and then under the ship.

'Why is it so hot in here.' He'd only been working for a few moments and sweat was already starting to form. With a small exhale he took off his jacket and tossed it aside somewhere near Cho while he waited for the lift to come back down again. As soon as it reached ground level he pushed the empty cart away and rolling the new one on to the lift. "How many of these can this thing hold?"

Cho wasn't really sure about it, he asked Nida once...he said...what did he say...How could he forget something like that?...Wait, he did remember. "I think about 19 or 20."

"That should be good then." Seifer walked back down to the ramp, unwilling to push a third chart up. He settled on a different type of cargo, a different cart loaded with at lest 300 hundred bullets. Unfortunately it was useless, when he started pushing it he found it just as heavy as the missiles, maybe more. 'Damnit, is someone just trying to spite me?' Seifer pressed his shoulder against the side and forced it up the incline, this time he was getting tired and having a little trouble, '...' Seifer started to slow down, almost slipping back once.

"?"

The chart became a little lighter when Cho, who'd completely snuck up on him, aliened himself next to the older boy and began to push. "This thing...is heavier then it looks."

"You thought it was light?" Seifer didn't ask why he was helping, he just continued to do his part.

"Not...really."

Upon making it back on to the higher level, Seifer noticing that hose that had been connected to the fuel line was gone. "The ship was full so I put the hose back." Cho explained before he could ask. Seifer gave an acknowledging sound as pulled the empty cart out of the way, loading the one with bullets on to the lift. It wasn't all of the rounds the ship could hold but that should be enough. Neither of them knew what was really happening with the Garden, maybe they didn't even need all of this?...right.

"So what do we put in next?" Cho asked, removing the quickly emptied cart from the descended lift and closing the loading hanger.

"Cho, go back to the ship. Now." Seifer's voice was harshly commanding, leaving no room for misinterpretation. It came on so suddenly, Cho wasn't expecting it.

Cho looked up at him questioningly, about to ask about it when the sight of something red in the corner of his eye made him freeze. 'No way...don't tell that's what I thought it was...' Hoping that he wasn't Cho slowly turned his head towards the sight and saw exactly what he'd hoped it wouldn't be, a shadow stood by the side door of the Ragnaork, just watching them, completely unmoving.

"When you said go back to the ship...what thing did you want me to get away from?"

Seifer pointed to a shadow on the ledge about one story above them, apparently he didn't see what Cho was talking about.

"Oh man, we have a serous problem then…" Cho elbowed Seifer in the side and pointed out one near the ships side door.

And that's when he unfortunately realized what was happening "Damnit, we're surrounded." He was thankful that his sword was nearby.

On closer inspection Cho could see at lest 0 more scattered about in different locations coming out of whatever place they'd been and onto the open. Some were across the gap, others were on the level above, more were spread about the ones below. It was obvious that there was more of them in this place then they could see.


	12. Chapter 11: Saving home part 3

Chapter 11: Saving home part 3

The shadows were just standing there, watching them, waiting, as if daring them to make a move. There had to be 20 of them in total, and that was only the ones they could see.

"Seifer…you think we can make it out of here." Cho asked, a clear hint of fear in his voice.

It wasn't looking to good, he'd fought one of these things, he knew what they were capable of. There was no way in the world he could even attempt to fight this many. "Not really." Seifer looked toward his gun blade mounted under the ship where he'd left his jacket, ready to charge forward and recover it.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Cho said sarcastically.

"It's what I do."

"Any chance your thinking of a plan?" Cho asked hopefully.

"Yeah, we make a run for the ship." Seifer told him.

"No way, those things will catch us!" Cho said.

"Then we fight our way through, if we're luckily we can make it." Seifer smirked, knowing that they would never make it that far. The would need more then luck for that, they'd need a miracle. "Didn't you tell me you got a GF? Just think of this as a test run."

Fight? He couldn't fight! "Damn…"Cho sighed, so many thoughts filled his mind. 'This is a horrible way to die, those things will rip me apart…' That was thought number one, he'd seen some of what those things could do. But more importantly he realized that he'd failed, and if Nida was going up against something remotely as dangerous as these things he'd need all the help he could get.

"Don't space out on me now. Dose this artillery storage go anywhere else. Like a vent or something?" Seifer asked.

Cho shook his head "No, just to the guns."

An annoyed sigh from expelled from Seifer upon hearing this, could he get a break for once in his life? "Looks like we're going to run for it after all. Ready kid?"

"Yeah." no, not really.

"Alright then." Seifer took a deep breath then, with slow movements as not to pre-maturely agitate the creatures he got in to a ready position, with out farther hesitation he charged toward his gun blade.

From there on everything seemed to move slow motion for Cho as if his mind suddenly began processing his senses faster, he froze, unable to do anything but watch everything unfold in front of him.

He could see every spring in Seifer's step while he moved. He watched the idle wolfs suddenly come to life, jumping down and climbing up from all sides. Moving so fast that they almost appeared to be going at normal speed while Seifer was trapped at a reduced one. Seifer slid to a stop underneath the ship right in front of his weapon, he lifted the gunblade from the ground, uppercut a shadow as he brought it up into a ready position. That was the only blow he'd have a chance to get off, by the time he did that the about 10 more shadows dangerously close and were about to pounce.

With out warning they all faded out of existence, Cho, Seifer, even the Ragnork vanished when the newly junctioned Shadow summoned himself.

Starting from the bottom of the Lunatic Paradona, he began possessing the machine. The charged ground, the walls, everything began to turn black like a cloud passing in front of the sun, it happened just as fast, in a few seconds the whole Paradona was under his control.

A pair of red eyes glowed as the GF changed shape, those red eyes became part of a wolf's face that appeared at the bottom of the structure. With a small growl, the wolf rushed upward in a larger form, his mouth open and devouring most of other shadows. As soon as he was at the top he faded out of reality, taking his control over the Lunatic Paradona with him and returning Seifer and Cho to their original positions with a fighting chance.

"What the hell happened!" Seifer looked around, wondering if what he had just seen was real or not. Either way the shadows that once surrounded him were gone.

'Thanks!' Cho thought gratefully. "Dose it matter! Let's go!" With out another wasted second he ran past Seifer toward the side door of the ship.

It seemed not all of the shadows had been hit by the attack, those that hadn't were coming for them in full force.

Cho waited until Seifer was inside before closing the door, hearing a small thump when a trailing Shadow crashed head first in to it. That was close, too close. "How fast can you get this thing in to the air?" Seifer asked, sliding down the broken bridge of the main room and heading towards storage, with out that bridge they were forced to go around the long way.

"10 seconds, I had to turn off the engine so that the Ragnaork could refuel." Cho explained, exiting out the door in the center of middle of the storage room to get to the hanger.

"!" The boy slid to a sudden stop, nearly falling in surprise when he entered the hanger and saw a Shadow blocking the stairway that led to the hall holding the lift to the cockpit and the passenger area.

"Ok, I'll fight it, you run past it ok?" Seifer immediately stepped in front of Cho defensively with his gunblade lifted.

Cho nodded obediently.

"Alright..." Seifer paused, waiting for the right moment... "Go!"

As soon as he gave the word both he and Cho ran directly at the Shadow in a confusing manner. Making sure to get the attention off of Cho, Seifer thrust his blade forward in to the black shadow's chest since he knew these monsters always went for the weaker looking person, with Seifer handling that Cho managed to get past the creature and head upstairs. "Come on, don't look at him, I'm the one you have to worry about."

! - ! - !

'Made it, thank you Se--!' As soon as he reached the head of the stairs, Cho didn't have a chance to react before he found himself inches from a shadow lunging at him already in midair. "Ahhhhaaa!" Once again everything began to move in slow motion with out explanation, even slower then the last time. 'W...What is this?' Those inches that separated him and shadow seemed to grow wider and wider with each.

'You... your doing that.' Cho realized, right before he faded out of existence.

In his place the Shadow GF appeared, standing face to face with a regular one that he was exactly 2 times bigger than. He changed shape with a growl, from his back a line of spikes rose up and shot out. They easily went through the smaller shadow's body and leaving a line of small holes over it before it ever touched the ground. To finish it, the GF's forehead pushed out large blade reminiscent to that of a sword. With one thrust forward he sliced the shadow in half cleanly, right before fading again and pulling Cho out of the sub-dimension.

'Thanks.' Cho only got a small bark like growl in an acknowledging response and figured that was all he would get out of the wolf. 'Right...'

With a clear path ahead of him Cho took the lift up to the cockpit, immediately running over to the dash board on it's ascent and knowingly pushed the necessary combination of switches and buttons to start the engine.

It seemed about a second later that Seifer made his way back to the cockpit also, a little more bloody and then he had been when Cho last saw him. "Are you ok?" Cho asked at the sight.

"Only scratches." Seifer sat down in the co-pilot seat next to Cho, buckling himself in nervously, though wasn't from the fact that they were surrounded by monsters but more so he was afraid Cho would crash in to a wall. "Let's go already!"

The engine roared to life with a small rev from Cho, he took hold of the throttle and instinctively released the safety on the weapons. "The only way out is up so hold on." Cho pulled back on the throttle as hard as he could, beginning a moderate but still hasty acceleration. The airship ascended fluidly off the ground and in to the air, immediately the cockpit started tilting upwards until it was looking strait up at the sky through the whole burned in the ceiling. "Here goes nothing..." With another rev the engine, the thrusters in the back of the ship flared with the initiation of after burners and Ragnaork shot forward hard enough to force the air out of Cho's lungs.

To their disadvantage the Shadows weren't going to make it that easy for them. One of the dark furred wolfs jumped down from a higher level and landed on the cockpit window amazingly able to remain on it's feet while doing so, with a simple change of shape the shadow's head became a spike that shot forward and thrust through the windshield, shattering it with one blow, sending throwing a rain of glass shards on Cho and Seifer as well as letting the said monster inside. It fell right between the two pilot seat, landing on the wall before, at the moment it was the floor because of the way the ship positioned.

"Damnit!" Seifer quickly unbuckled himself, jumping down out of the seat on to the wall above the lift next to the shadow that landed on to.

"Can you handle it?" Cho asked nervously, uneasy that one of those managed to get in so easily, that was bullet proof glass for goodness sake!

"Yeah, you just keep the rest of them away." Seifer called back, knowing it was an easer job said then done.

Right now at lest 5 more of them had the same idea and were dive head first towards the Cockpit. 'I wish Nida would have let me practice more...' Cho pressed down on the two red buttons on both sides of the throttle controlling the Glatting guns on both sides, both them of the ship opened fire.

He shifted the nose of the ship somewhat to hit the group, firing a blur of quick streaks at an incomprehensible speed. His only thought of it was that it was almost like hitting water from the way the monster's body splashed when the bullets hit them. It seemed as if it hadn't worked at all but it was effective, he could none the less because that was what their body looked like when the head of Ragnaork flew through them. "Yeah!"

One last shadow stood in their way, it had changed it's form to spread out and cover hole completely.

"MOVE!" Cho pressed down on pulling the blue trigger resting on the underside of the throttle and firing newly loaded missile, hoping that he didn't get caught in the blast of his own attack. The projectile was more then enough to incinerate the shadow on detonation as well as expand the hole substantially, letting them easily pass through. "Made it!" As soon as they were safe Cho turned the ship right-side up again, making the unsuspecting Seifer, who had been standing on the wall where gravity had pulled him, fall flat on his face.

With a glare and a red spot forming on his face, Seifer pushed himself off of the ground, stomped over the Cho and gave him a swift punch to the back of the head "You could have warned me."

"I could have couldn't I?" Cho rubbed his head, replying in an innocent voice.

"When this is all over I'm kicking your ass."

"Yeah whatever."

! - ! - !

"What happened….." Nida couldn't believe what he was seeing as the Ragnaork approached the Garden at full speed, trying to observe the changes. It was as Squall had said, he just didn't expect _this_. He could assume that these monsters that Squall had referred to really had done something to the Garden because of it's extremely darkened tent that wasn't there before and how that new color appeared to be moving around on it's surface as far as he could tell.

He didn't have as much time to assess the situation as he'd liked to have had, as soon as he got remotely close to the Garden a thin black spike pushed it's way out of the possessed metal and shot forward at a startling speed "!" It smashed right through his windshield, Nida was barely able to tilt his head to the side before the spike missed his face by inches and tore through the seat's headrest. 'Is...is this what Squall was talking about?'

Prying the Spike out of his seat with one hand, Nida stalled the ship completely and began firing with the Glatting guns. The rapidly disbursing bullets rained down on the structure just above the tail, each was met with the sound and action of splashing and water as it ate away at the merged shadow, tearing off small drops of the manifested darkness with each shot.

The shadow countered each bullet in turn with an uprising spike, just barley trailing after Nida as he paned around the Garden in a circle with all the maneuverability and speed the airship could produce. But the Ragnaork wasn't fast enough, the trailing line of uprising spikes rose faster and caught up to the ship. 'It's too fast...' Nida made a sharp decent towards the water to avoid them, only managing to evade a few before the spikes managed to slice through the roof and make it as far as the cockpit before Nida's decent preyed the air ship away.

'It can...get away if I...' Nida, launched 3 missiles during his sharp decent. The missiles stuck and exploded in three different spots, flaring up in a rush of flames, burning away the part of the shadow that resided near over the training center on the first floor. 'Did I do anything?'

When the smoke clear a large hole remained, large enough to show the training center inside also notability dark from possession, as a result of the attack, and this time the Shadow didn't counter.

'A weak spot.' Nida said to himself triumphantly, when a hole was created in the object the Shadow possessed, it became a weak spot. Or at lest that's what he hoped. Nida began running Scans on the Garden using the ships receptors while he fired the Glatting guns in to the hole. Blowing apart the blackened dirt and manipulated plant life inside. Someone else's first instinct would have been to using something more powerful such as another, but Nida was mindful that Squall was inside and he wanted to take the Garden back not destroy it beyond repair.

Recovering from the injury, the merged shadow shifted itself around and covered the hole by thinning itself out in other areas, with the opening patched a counter attack finally came. 'It can't attack with an open wound.' Nida had to study it as much as he could during battle since he hadn't had as much time as he wanted to assesses it.

The Shadow pulled enough of itself from other areas, returning the thinned areas to normal color, to send a pillar larger then the Ragnaork itself at Nida. Even with a mass that size the attack was so sudden that he didn't have time to avoid. A wall of the black substance spit open as if it was a mouth and smashed into the ship, it seemed to be trying to pull the rest of the Ragnaork into itself after already swallowing the head. The first thing it did was seeping in to the cockpit like flood waters.

'Squall wasn't kidding about theses things...' Nida watched it nervously seep into the windshield's frame, and hoping that this stuff hadn't clogged his weapons, he tried to fire the Glatting guns. Though the sound was audibly muffled a spray of bullets was still unleashed and after a few seconds of consecutive fire the pillar stalled it's advance just before the substance was about to reach the dashboard. Which wasn't water proof by the way.

'Now!' With an open opportunity Nida moved the airship to the right while descending, moving on his general sense of direction he began firing blindly, striking just the area he was aiming for, the exposed metal in the before the Shadow could pull itself back in to place.

It immediately released him and wasting no time Nida panned over the Garden a second time from the right, striking the area he passed over just before the merged shadow could reposes it again. He couldn't help but grimace at all the damage he would cause when he reluctantly took the chance before him and pulled the blue trigger, launching a missile directly in to the open quad 'Damn, it's gonna take forever to fix this.' a disheartened moan came when he watched the whole wing cave in with a plum of forced outward smoke, also doing massive damage to the Shadow.

This time it's counter was quicker then other previous times, shooting three much larger spikes at the speed of a bullet in to the Ragnaork, one driving and rooting itself on the left side, one on the right and one through the ceiling of the cockpit.

Nida flinched when it decimated half of his roof and embedding itself in the wall just above the lift. "Damnit!" Nida leaned forward toward the control panel now a sea of sirens and blinking lights. He fervently began flipping switches and pressing different buttons to either adjust different settings or shut of the sirens for a problem he could do nothing about at the moment. "No, No, No..." He focused all of his energy on escaping the hold, targeting the three spikes with the Glatting guns in an attempt to shoot them off.

But he saw quickly that he was helpless and could only watch as the Garden began to rise out of the water for some unknown reason.

All of this and he was still trapped...he began to hear the horrible sound of metal being forced to bend and buckle under a compression being applied from the spears hooked into him. He was about to be crushed... "What the hell, the Garden can't do that…" Nida started to try more desperate measures, at first reluctant because of his close range he fired 6 consecutive missiles, 2 to each spike. All sets of them erupted in a strong, deafeningly strident blast, Nida was forced to unbuckle himself and dive down to the floor to narrowly avoid a wave of flame bursting into the cockpit from every window.

Nida scrambled back up to his seat and retook the controls, as he expected the Ragnaork received it's share of splash damage from the explosion. "!" The air ship still managing to break through the hold and fall free though still plagued with three spikes plunged in unknown vitality. But by then the Garden was above him and the rotating blade under it was coming down on him, he couldn't understand it, the Garden couldn't fly like that.

That's why it was so unexpected. "Damnit!" He did his best to turn the ship but it was moving much more sluggishly because of the damages from the spikes's near impalement, he could barely move forward with just one thruster of 4 running. In fact he was so stalled that that he was actually sinking. "I...I can't move..." Nida began frantically adjusting things on the dashboard, trying to at lest patch the problem well enough to evade... "No..."

"NIDA!" Cho's voice screamed over the radio so suddenly and loudly that Nida flinched.

Nida didn't pause for a second, even while looking up to try and find out where that voice had come from his hands moved around knowingly on the control panel even with out watching. "C-Cho?"

He looked down at his radar, and then followed what he saw to the left windshield, couldn't believe what he was seeing, another Ragnaork was coming toward him at full speed. On second thought this was Cho he was talking about, if anyone could pull this off he could. "Cho!"

"Nida! What the happened! Your --"

"Get the hell out of here!" Nida nearly screamed it into the microphone, he could still see the garden descending on him, but he was almost out of the way….

Nida knew this ship, and it became very apparent to him that there was no way he would clear this. "Cho! Go now! There was a reason I left you behind da--"

! - ! - !

Cho was helpless to do anything but watch as the ring beneath the Garden descended down on top of the almost out of range Ragnaork.

"NO!"

The rotating disc sliced jaggedly through the other ship, severing everything south of the cockpit with a substantial explosion. The only part of it still in one piece was thrown rapidly toward the water in a substantial blaze. The severed majority half of the Ragnaork fell right alone with it though now only a charred frame.

"Nida! Nida!" Cho roughly dropped down toward remaining part of the opposing ship, not caring how close they were too the possessed Garden or that he was half way about the crash.

"Holy shit, watch it kid!" Seifer was relieved when they ship stopped just above the water's surface, much to close to a violent crash landing then he would have liked.

Cho put the ship on Auto-pilot, something he barely knew how to do, barely noticing in his haste that the system was being flooded with data sent by the other Ragnaork. But that wasn't his main concern. Cho bolted from his seat and ran to the lift, a curious and half worried Seifer trailing closely behind him.

He ran at full sprint to the side door, the boy actually jumped across the severed bridge to reach the air lock to Seifer's amazement. Cho pushed open the door and looked down and was immeasurably happy to see the cockpit floated just in front of them, most of the flames extinguished on impact.

"No, don't tell me your thinking what I think your thinking." Seifer made his way into the air lock after having to jump down and climb up on the other side. "Don't do it! If you jump---Hey wait!" Seifer reached out and tried to catch Cho but the boy jumped out of the Ragnork with out hesitation. "Stupid kid, how the hell dose he think he's gonna get back up here!"

Cho's body fell luckily into the sinking cockpit, landing with a force out cry on top of the control panel in waist high and amazingly quickly rising water. Cho was forced to crouch down to reach a fully submerged and unconscious Nida strapped in the pilot seat. With unfounded strength and adrenalin he managed to rip apart the straps and freed Nida, with he water taking most of the weight he lifted the older boy on to his shoulders.

The boy gasped, panting with staved breaths after having to swim to the surface since the water had rose far above his head during his time freeing Nida. "..."

That's when he noticeably began feeling the Shadow junctioned to him start to work with his body, he'd already been giving Cho subtle parts of his own strength and speed.

The Shadow's strength flooded his body now, prompting Cho to move. With out hesitation he did, climbing up the side of the ship cockpit still protruding out of the water, then jumping off of it, managing to leap up to the door of the Ragnaork floating over head.

"W-What the hell was that?" Seifer lifted Nida off of the boy's shoulder and placing him on to his. He had more questions going through his mind than he had time to ask.

"Come on!"

! -! - !

Seifer slowly sat Nida down in to the chair the left of the pilot seat, making sure to strap him in, mindful of any injuries he might have. "What is going on around here..."

"!" Cho jumped into the pilot seat and grabbed on to the throttle, not even bothering to remove the auto-pilot as he drew it back pulled the ship backwards away from the merged shadow embodying the Garden before it could attack, heading in the opposite direction to get a safe distance away.

By then Ifrit, Griever and Bahamut had recovered some and rose out of the ocean after a host of complications.

As soon as he was sure he wouldn't be attacked, Cho returned the ship to auto-plot and nearly tripped over his seat to get to Nida. "Nida?"

Cho placed his hand on Nida's shoulder, almost afraid to touch him from fear he might hurt something. As softly as he could manage he shook the older boy, he seemed to hit a sore spot because Nida cried out weakly in pain.

That jolt pulled him in to what little consciousness he had left, and the first thing he knew was that everything was in pain, even his eyes hurt when he tried to open them. "Cho….?" He was burned, had more bruises on him then he cared to identify and despite being soaking wet after being submerged in the ocean he was covered in blood, farther agitated by the ocean's salt.

"Are you alright?" Cho had never felt so sacred in his life, his voice was shaking, his eyes trembled with the begins of tears, he just hoped that Nida wouldn't...

"….." Nida's eyes rolled back, was slipping out of consciousness again. A soft shake on an injured area and aloud scream from Cho brought him back. "You...gotta learn to listen...I told you...to...stay.. in Esthar. When I...wake up...I'm gonna...kill you."

Cho smiled, unable to resist hugging Nida despite how much pain he knew was Nida in. "How bad is it? Is anything broken."

"I'm ok." Nida tried his best to reassure him, he tried desperately to hug Cho back, but he couldn't lift either one of his arms. Every time he tried he had to resist screaming, but he had to resist screaming by just breathing. "Don't...Don't worry...about me..."

"Your not ok." Cho buried his face into Nida's chest, unable to stop himself from crying. "You can't even stay awake!"

"Just...get out...of here, It's to...it's too dangerous."

"What was all of this you sent me?" Cho asked, referring to the data that had poured in to his system.

"It's the data on the monster… I had to move it so... that it wouldn't be lost…" Nida tried his best to stay awake, but it was coming increasingly harder. He could no longer keep his eyes open.

"Come on…Stay awake!" Cho shouted, he let go of Nida, taking him by the shoulders and trying to keep him awake.

"Squall…He's inside in the cockpit…of the Garden. You have too--" Nida's voice trailed off, his head falling to the side loosely, he couldn't stay conscious any longer, his injures were pretty bad also. That wasn't usually a good combination.

Seifer stood over Nida, doing his best to clean the blood off of him with a towel while trying to get a good assessment how badly he was hurt. "..." It wasn't easy to tell while he was in this position but--...Nida's heavy breathing abruptly stopped and he arched upward, his mouth open as if he wanted to cry out but couldn't. Then he suddenly coughed. "Whoa..." Seifer quickly lifted the towel to Nida's mouth as a streak of blood was spewed out. "Looks like he's bleeding internally." Seifer looked up at Cho who hadn't said anything yet, he couldn't help but pause when he saw the boy. 'He's pissed...'

Cho was furious, his eyes narrowed dangerously, his fist clinched so tightly that his arms were shaking, looking as if he wanted to scream something out as loudly as he could but couldn't get the words out. … That shadow had nearly killed Nida. Maybe it was his age that made that level of fury possible, he was consumed by an anger that the Shadow inside of him had never experienced and inanely started to feed off of and take on. It engulfed him, he kept embodying that strong emotion until he embodied Cho completely, anger and all.

The boy's eyes started to glow a bright red and an inhuman growl escaped from his throat. A black aura flared up but passed quickly, it happened quickly enough to surprise Seifer but he didn't have time to say anything before Cho turned and jumped into the pilot seat.

Though his body may had been possessed, a small part of his mind was still there, though still under strong influence. What stayed the strongest was his will and anger.

The two conflicting voices spoke in unison, but like everything else at he moment, Shadow's deeper one nearly overpowered Cho's. "I'm going to kill that damn thing!"

'He keeps surprising me...' Seifer left Nida for the moment and sat down in the co-pilot's seat, studying Cho's face uneasily. "Kid…your starting to make me nervous."

Cho didn't pay attention to Seifer, he just only turned the ship around sharply and headed back for the Garden.


	13. Chapter 12: meet my Darker half

Chapter 12: Seifer, meet my Darker half, I haven't name him yet though

"I heard the Garden was at Esther Now." Zell sat idly in his living room in Balamb, the only place not full of Garden students. The whole town was overrun, having more sudden arrivals then it could handle. Some of them already were starting to relocate to other cities.

(Ok. Now how are we going to get over there?) Carbuncle asked.

Zell laid back on his bed, letting his hands rest behind his head while he thought. They had no airship at they could use, every outgoing ship was being packed with outsourcing students all going in the opposite direction...Wait! Boat...water...Zell was getting an idea. 'Hey Carbuncle, you make shields right?'

(More or less. Why?)

'I think I know I way we can get over there.

! - ! - !

"What the hell?" Seifer leaned forward, looking over Cho's face more carefully, taking special notice of the glowing eyes. "What's going on." Seifer curiously waved a hand in front of the boy's face, wondering if he could really see out of the new, chrisom pupils he now was wearing.

Cho lifted his arm and knocked it forcefully out of his line of vision wordlessly before clinching the throttle in a grip Seifer was sure would make it break.

"Ok, who are you? No... I mean _what_ are you?" Seifer asked, he still didn't get a response and if he was potentially being lead to his death he sure as hell wouldn't settle for that. He watched as the Ragnaork flew over the Garden, narrowly avoiding a line of spikes that trailed after them when they got in range, and dropped a missile over the cockpit at the head of the Garden. Just as Nida had told him Squall was.

"Give me an answer Damnit!" Seifer growled in frustration, lifting out of his seat and moving so close that he was inches from Cho's ears when he yelled.

The Shadow's sensitive hearing made him flinch violently, Cho immediately clasped a hand over his ear.

And Seifer had just found a sensitive spot. "Oh, don't like that huh? How about I keep doing this UNTIL I GET OFF THIS DAMN SHIP!" Seifer screamed in to his ear even louder, making Cho jump more forcefully then last, which in turn made the ship tilled to the side slightly off of balance.

"You'll get us all killed." Cho finally spoke, but his voice was in low, dangerous tones that really meant 'Stop before I kill you.'

"Now we're getting somewhere." Happy with the response, Seifer sat back down in his seat, running a hand through his golden strands of short hair. "Now what's with the eyes?"

Cho only let out a low, in-human growl in response, Seifer wasn't detoured by this at all. Like he was going to be scared of this, he just couldn't think of Cho as someone that would hurt him. Not say he couldn't, it just didn't seem like he was the type of person that would try.

Nope, his only image of Cho was a smart-mouth brat that was extremely persistence to the point it was a weakness. Cho was generally a good kid,…who knew how to do just about everything illegal, but still.

"Oh, your trying to be scary and intimidating because your mad. Do you know who I am? I was doing the scary intimidating thing a lot better when I was calm before you were even born."

Cho smirked at this, not the usual child like one he usually wore, but a more menacing one. It was surreal. "The thought that someone as immature as you being older then me is laughable."

Seifer raised an eyebrow, he still had the thought in his mind that the glowing eyes and everything were all just some spell or trick. No...this couldn't be that, he thought more so that this kid wasn't really a kid at all. "Ok, I give up. What are you Cho? What are you really?"

"I insist that you don't call me by my host's name." The GF said, thinking about it 'host' wasn't the right word. What was? Lover, uke, mate, partner…Cho had used partner before, but what's said is said. He'd probably changed the wording next time.

"Uh…could you be _more_ specific?" Seifer asked.

"I have no name. That's why you humans are so weak, you constantly name things and it holds power over you." Cho snorted with distaste.

"I'll keep that in mind. Mental memo: Don't use names, preferably use "Hey you!" or "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to that other person over there. You know we don't have something as mundane as names to distinguish one person from the other" Dually Noted." Seifer shot back sarcastically.

"Let me explain this in terms even your mind can comprehend. I am not Cho and don't speak to as if I was." Cho growled, literally, a growl came out at the same time as the words.

"Right, whatever Dogboy, you still didn't answer my question though. What. _Are_. Yooouuuu?"

It became clear to the shadow that Seifer wouldn't leave him alone until he got answer, but he couldn't help but think that if he wasn't in Cho's body piloting this ship, he would have kill the human by now.

"It'd be easier just to think of me as I one of those that control your "Garden"." he said.

Ok, that was a surprise, he definitely didn't expect that. "Oh crap! How in the hell did Cho managed to get controlled by one of those?" Seifer was more surprised at the fact that Cho was possessed by one, then that one was sitting next to him and flying the ship.

"I am not 'controlling' him idiot. This was willing…I think he used the term junction."

Seifer sighed in relief internally. "Really, good thing I thought I was going to have to kill you." Now that he didn't have to worry about this so much he lifting his feet to the dashboard and resting his hands behind his head.

"You kill me? A weakling like you couldn't come close." Cho roared, glaring at him.

"If I can take down Odin, I can kick your ass." Seifer shot back.

"If I--" The Shadow was suddenly cut off in the middle of his sentence, when he felt something odd, something he'd never experienced, it was Seifer scratching behind his ear. It felt unexpectedly good, his mouth open with a small pant, he almost found himself curling against his hand. But he quickly growled and knocked his hand back, then pushed Seifer's feet off the control panel and flipped a switch that resided there.

Seifer promptly placed his legs back in the same position when Cho was finished.

"Hmm…what should I call you?" Seifer said teasingly, scratching behind his ear again with an amused smile on his face.

Cho tilted his head out of range more reluctantly then last time, Seifer had noticed it. The truth was that no one who saw him stayed alive long enough to give him a name. It was always something like "What's that black thing?--"…and then a painful looking death.

Seifer on the other hand showed no fear even though he knew what a shadow could do, and he was considerably more dangerous then the regular ones. Still Seifer went as far as to taunt him, verbally and physically. Either this human was extremely powerful, or a completely stupid. This behavior intrigued him somewhat and he found himself actually enjoying arguing with him.

"Mental Memo: "Play with Human later". Side Note: "Hurt him first." Dually Noted." Cho said sarcastically, obviously mocking Seifer.

He rolled his eyes, "I'll kick your ass for that later." Seifer shot back.

Cho only smirked with that same menacing look. "I can see why the boy likes you so much."

Seifer looked down at him, petting his head teasingly as if he was a dog. "I think I'll stick to the basics and call you Shadow. You look like some thing that would be called Shadow."

"That's exactly what he calls me…Don't call me that. Neither of you should be naming me anything." Cho barked, pushing the ship forward, peering at the possessed Garden as if he was sizing his chances. He had enough Cho in his mind, or was it the other way around, to remember what happened to Nida. Nida was a better pilot then he was and he ended up being shot down. The Shadow thought it would be better to let Cho decide on the next course of action before he proceed.

! - ! - !

Ifrit stared at the Garden, a small growl escaping involuntarily. The ship had risen on to Esther's coast some how and was heading east away from the city, It's destination was unknown but Ifrit found it easier to fight now that he wasn't over water. An almost devilish smirk appeared on his face, it wouldn't have appeared that way if he wasn't so angry.

Griever glanced over in Ifrit's direction and on the sight knew what he was planning, he also knew Ifrit was just waiting to get away from the water through it might have been safer if he did was he was about to do when they were still in the ocean. But Ifrit was right, it was time Griever showed this shadow why he was the strongest GF.

"Damned Beasts..." Bahamut sighed in annoyment, if those two were planning to use their most powerful attacks then he should probably help. He was already feeling frustrated and extremely angry, already much more needed to execute a simple limit break. But it was just enough required for an attack that was superior his limit break.

He only used this once and it didn't have good results, maybe it was from inexperience but some of it backfired and it all went downhill from here. Bahamut just hoped he didn't make a mistake this time, he'd have time to think about it.

Ifrit roared, the reality around him seemed to jump out of place momentarily from the energy and heat that flared around him. This was about to become a test of every bit of the strength he'd gained, and he was already feeling the strain from pulling Bahamut, Griever and the whole city of Esther into the sub-dimension. Once they were safety out of range, Ifrit used his ultimate limit break Meto.

The blue sky violently shifted hue to blood red, the clear, white clouds in the distance became black as the ones over Esther were incinerated from the heat before the attack even reached them. He roared again, lifting his hands above his head and then thrusting them toward the ground. A thunderous explosion burst forth from the sky, turning the odd red into a raging inferno of t intense flames, the sky was actually on fire, raining embers. Everything was covered in a orangeish-red haze, the super heated air wavered and distorted.

Then with a loud screech of air being pried apart, a rain of burning meteors fell from the sky, all of them the same ones Ifrit used in his limit break Hell Fire.10 of them came down at about 3 at a time all consecutively, a hard force for Ifrit to control. But in a display of power he turned all of them towards the possessed Garden.

As soon as the first one struck, a flash of red expelled forth and covered everything, blinding Ifrit from the sight of other's striking the Garden. The outward force almost sent Ifrit flying, but he still managed to stand his ground.

At the attack's end everything reappeared back in place, the raging inferno that was the sky had returned to the normal blue, all except for the fact that the city of Esther was 20 feet lower in the ground from the craters Ifrit's attack had caused, he hadn't been entirely accurate after that flash. Though only about half of them The Shadows were incinerated, every one of them. And luckily they had managed to absorb most of the damage from the attack and left the Garden with minimum damages.

"Ifrit..." Griever was astounded by Ifrit's power, he had no idea Ifrit had grown so strong as to be able to use something that strong. Ifrit looked up at him with a dazed look, he faltered slightly, nearly falling out of the air. Griever immediately flew over to him at full speed, his arms wrapping tightly around Ifrit's body and catching him before he fell. "Are you alright?"

"Just a little tired, that's all..."

It appeared to be over, at first glance at lest.

Bahamut scanned over the area unsurely, having the superior eyesight of all three of them, he was the first one to spot it. A shadow crept out from under the dormant Garden, running at full sprint East away from the city. "Wait, there's another one." He called out, also the first to figure out why the shadows where heading for the continent of Esther. "I think we have a hard task ahead of us..."

The Lunatic Paradona, which previously had stood dormant at Tear's Point, had also been possessed by a larger number of Shadows. Even though the Shadow GF had taken out most of them, there were still more remaining their then the number of those that had been in the Garden. And now the large structure was currently floating towards them.

Griever landed softly on the ground, laying Ifrit down nearby. "Stay here."

"No..." Ifrit clinched his chest, panting heavily. He'd expended all his energy on Meto, more then he could really spare. "I was hell killing off the ones from the Garden, and their were three of us."

Griever glared at him, giving him a hard punch to the chest that made the flame GF gasp loudly. "Stop being foolish. Stay here."

"No, I--"

"Ifrit." Griever knelt down on to one knee, leaning forward to look Ifrit in the eye...that's when he finally noticed that they had the same ones, there eyes were exactly the same. It was almost like staring into a mirror of himself. "Don't be difficult. It's my turn to protect you."

"P-Protect me?" This was different, he'd never heard Griever speak to him like this...he was actually being...protective? "Griever?"

"Don't move." Griever stood up with outstretched wings and then rose abruptly into the air before Ifrit could get into a second word. He knew Ifrit would listen to him even if he didn't want to, Ifrit was always easy to manipulate.

'I will protect him...' Griever took this one on himself instead, being the most powerful out of the three he was better suited for taking on a larger force. 'Those things won't get close to him.' Using the same tactic Ifrit used, he sent everything surrounding him in to the sub-dimension since his attack would be considerably larger then Ifrit's. In with a general assessment, he knew he'd end up in the same condition as Ifrit when this was over so he had to make it count.

A strong energy surrounded him, it was invisible but it made reality distort around him like ripples in water. With a low, dangerous growl Griever used his strongest limit break, Shockwave Laser. The metallic orb that lay in the center of his Shockwave Pulsar attack, floated in front of him. 5 more appeared, forming a circle in front of his chest, linked into a chain.

Everything became still, not a sound could be heard, it was like the calm before the storm. All of that changed when the 6 orbs fired out surprisingly small laser. It was extremely thin, but highly concentrated beam, those orbs were siphoning and compressing his energy, his power, everything into the chrome beam. He closed his eyes and held his head down, mentally controlling the beam that swept across and sliced through the Lunatic Pandora from the side in the directly in the center easily. The shadows that covered the black walls of the machine were destroyed from the center of it outward.

What really made the attack so dangerous was that the beam could go right through you but it was the shockwaves that did the damage just as the name implied. Silent and invisible, the beam struck the ground behind the Pandora, drilling into the ground and going as far as it would go. That's when the shockwaves began sweeping outward from the stalled beam. In a surreal effect the ground was distorted in a ripple from the center, making the crater about 40 feet deep as if a veil was being pulled off. Also reveling a black liquid that lay beneath.

Once again the Shadows had taken all of the damage, leaving the original Lunatic Pandora in tact. It was just to bad what was left of it fell off into two halves and crashed to the ground.

'...' Just as anticipated Griever had used up nearly all his energy in the attack, leaving him little more then useless for the next few hours along with Ifrit. "Bahamut, you'll have to handle this. Can you?"

Bahamut flapped his wings just enough to keep himself in the air, he was the only one left still standing. "I'll have to." He wasn't really sure he had something powerful enough, well he did but...

Griever plummeted to the ground, straining to flap his wings and slow his decent. He didn't slow as much as he would have liked too before he landed on his feet, hard. He managed to stifle an outcry of pain, he was sure he injured something on the way down, and with balance fading he fell on to his back next to Ifrit.

"Are you alright?" Ifrit turned his head towards him, a worried expression spared across his face.

Griever snorted and turned away, he really didn't like when Ifrit had to ask him that.

Ifrit only laughed.

The black liquid began to stir like a sea during a storm, about half of it drained farther into the ground while the other half took shape in to Shadow.

A Shadow as larger as the Lunatic Pandora itself, this just didn't seem to end.

The giant merged shadow howled as a line of spike became visible alone it's body, ready to strike. It looked like it was Bahamut's turn.

Just like the two before him he expended a large amount of energy to pull everything around him in to the Sub-dimension, it was just as well, the less a mouth of energy he was about to pump out the more he could control. With his mouth open wide he pulled in energy from the air to replace what he had lost, all done in one deep breath.

This was when the weakness of his attack showed itself, it took a little time to charge up. That small amount of time could mean the difference between life and death in a fight. The ground began to quake, the air itself even seemed to shake in the wake of the energy being built up, this was clearly more violent an attack then MegaFlare.

The Shadow tried to take advantage of this, it's head becoming one large spike that speared towards Bahamut like a shot from a gun. But it had taken too long to act, if that was at all possible, and Bahamut ended up having it right where he wanted it. 'Now!' With a loud roar Bahamut fired the Gigaflare, sending a wall of green energy larger then his body forward at the Shadow.

Out of all three attacks, this one was by far the most destructive and if he had been firing toward the ground, the content of Esther would have had a hole large enough to match the destruction of the Centra continent.

The beam devoured the merged shadow in a blare of emerald green and the two halves of the Lunatic Pandora behind it, luckily crashed into the ocean behind him. But it seemed Bahamut still couldn't control the Gigaflare just as the last time he tried it... 'No...No!' it expanded beyond the size he was working to keep it, and the next thing he knew it detonated in his mouth and he was engulfed in his own attack. With out him to power it, the Gigaflare died off with in a few seconds, Bahamut was sent shooting to ground wrapped in green flames, all of them were brushed out and a creator was left behind on impact with the ground.

He'd been screaming and he didn't even realize it.

A little burned and after what felt like he broke his back and dislocated his tail, Bahamut let out another sigh, 'At lest it wasn't as bad as the first time.' Now that he focused on it he could easily handle pain, and he had a growing anger about his tail, he could have tolerated it being his wings instead. It was ironic that his back had been broken but his wings were fine, as if he would be able to fly with back in this condition. 'Damnit…'

"Look's like you two over did it." Squall standing over Griever and Ifrit, managing to come up behind them before either of them could notice he was there. Now that the Garden was no longer possessed he was able to get out with out a problem, though he suffered a substantial amount of injury inside having to fight off the shadows in order to survive until his rescue. "Thank you."

Squall knelt down doing his best to help the two GF's stand to their feet, they found it easier and less painful just to junction themselves to Squall then to try and walk.

(Squall, I almost didn't think you would make it.) Ifrit sighed in relief, Squall could almost see the grin on his face.

'I almost didn't think you two would get me out of there.' Squall said.

...There was a sound that could be hear, a distant one gaining volume. '...Do you hear that?'

Ifrit mentally nodded. (Yeah...it sounds like--)

Their conversation was cut short when the sound of gunfire came from behind them. The Ragnaork swept past them, the usually red metal was covered in black, firing at an unknown target.

! - ! - !


	14. Chapter 13: Guardian Force

Chapter 13: Guardian Force

It seemed this last monster was the only thing that stood in-between them and a resolution to this whole situation. The part of the shadow that drained in to the ground was attacking before any one on the ground had time to notice what was happening. Spikes shot up from the charred earth with small quake, aiming particularly at the Ragnaork. It was more then strong enough to reach the ship.

Attacking it back would be a problem, since it was underneath the ground and wasn't possessing it, it could move easily in-between the pours in the minerals. So there was little way to find out it was and actually get a hit off before it moved.

Damn things.

"This is just creepy." Seifer shifted around nervously in his seat, he wasn't to sure about what was happening now.

Everything around him was black now that Shadow had possessed the Ragnaork with out even leaving Cho's body, all of it except the windows... "Is the fearless human becoming afraid?" Cho asked, not in a mocking tone but an inquiring one as if he didn't understand how Seifer was acting at the moment.

"First, don't call me human, call me by my name, Seifer, you know because us humans like to name things. And I'm _not_ afraid." Seifer told him forcefully.

"Your body heat had risen several degrees and your hart rate as has increased." Cho told him.

"It's not from fear." Seifer rested his hands behind his head and lifted his feet back on to the dashboard where they'd had been before. That reaction Seifer was having wasn't from fear, it was more from anticipation.

Cho shook his head with the small nearly incoherent utterance that he didn't understand humans and turned his vision back toward the ground outside the windshield. He opening fire on the land indiscriminately with the Glatting guns.

A line of spikes shot out of the ground in a counter towards the ship, seemingly with out a reason Cho didn't evade and allowed them to connect. That's when the shadow took a hold of them on to them, preventing them from retracting back to the ground With that it became a battle of strength between the GF trying to hold on to the merged shadow's appendages and the other shadow trying to itself back. "Heh." Shadow held on to the spikes as long as he could, pulling the blue trigger then letting a missile release from the ship and drop to the ground with precision.

He couldn't miss.

The Spikes were incinerated upon the explosion and the dark substance buried beneath the ground spewed forth from the smoking crater a splash from water, quickly retreating back before it could be hit again.

As soon as it was completely immersed, the ground began to shake violently with the formation of large splits and fractures, then with another splash like motion from merged Shadow, the sending large pieces of it where thrown into air.

The flying debris of boulders and rocks smashed in to the Ragnaork, knocking it around and almost out of the sky, it would have had not for Shadow's possession. That also mint he was taking his fair share of damage from the last attack.

Cho growled in anger, watching his chances of winning declining before his eyes. With out hesitation he thrust the throttle forward and accelerated, sending the Ragnaork into a furious nose dive.

Seifer didn't like looking strait a the ground, especially when plummeting towards it ."What the hell are you doing?" Seifer shouted, he got no response.

Once again as wall of rocks and boulders were lunched from the ground in another splashing motion from the merged shadow, they were no real challenge. They became nothing more then dust and pebbles with a barrage of rounds from the guns.

The ship came to a sudden stop, forcefully haling just a few feet from the ground's surface much to Seifer's contentment. The dark then that surrounded the bright red metal begin to pulled off like water sheeting off a non-absorbent surface. It formed the head of a wolf, presumably Shadow's because Cho seemed to become dormant at the moment, it seeped into the ground just as easily as a ghost.

Both shadows conflicted heavily, causing an earthquake growing in strength rapidly. After a few seconds the earth was literally jumping and large fissures shout outward from the place they met. One in particular along the coast near Esther.

It seemed as if a land mass would break off if this continued, but the earthquake stopped just as suddenly as it had started, the Shadow GF was the only one that immerged, repossessing the a small part of the ship he had let go so that he could enter the cockpit and re-junction himself with Cho.

! - ! - !

He seemed to wake up then, his face returning to that normal, almost casual expression he always carried, the glowing red eyes reverting back to the chocolate ones. They glimmered with a child like astonishment. "You really did it…" Cho's voice was saturated with pure amazement and pride, making Shadow feel a certain sense of contentment now that Cho had some admiration for him.

It was really an weird experience for him.

It felt strange, he'd never felt this type of contentment. In fact he never felt much of anything except some physical pain in his hundreds of years of living, ever. But he wasn't apposed to the new feeling and decoded that he could get use to it, he actually enjoyed being admired.

Now that this whole thing was over, he could work on his other problem, the only reason he'd tolerated this one in the first place. It was hard to focus on much of anything else, it had been a miracle that he even made it through the battle having been so distracted.

! - ! - !

The Ragnaork landed on the now uneven grounds, Cho emerged from the side door followed by Seifer.

Seifer smirked, spotting a familiar face. "Well look who it is, what are you doing here Chicken Wuss?" he asked curiously, this was not a person he expected to see. He also noticed he didn't get the same reaction as he usually got.

Zell, and Carbuncle, were too busy tending to Bahamut. "What are you doing here asshole?" Zell shot back, he didn't even look up from the Dragon laying on the ground in front of him.

Cho looked over Zell's shoulder curiously. "What happened to Squall? Did he get out?"

He sounded distracted, as if he wasn't even paying attention. "Yeah, he went to Esther to try and get some help with the Garden and stuff…" Zell retrieved a GF hi-potion from his inventory since it was the best he could produce at the moment, "Bahamut..." Zell slowly poured it over the wounds and cuts along the GF's body. He took a second one, his last, and slowly poured it in to Bahamut's mouth.

Bahamut swallowed with out complaint, ignoring the stinging pain that came with it's application of it to his wounds and the sour taste of the liquid.

Most of his injuries were too deep to be reached by medicine or to severe to be effected, like that dislocated tail that was broken in three places, so it looked like he'd be out of any fighting for a while and Zell told him so a sternly as he could manage.

The healing rate of someone his species was fast, so he'd be fine in a week, two at the most, which is what Bahamut told him back.

"Look's like your going to have to stay here." Zell said with a hint of disappointment.

"Where are you going?" Bahamut asked, he didn't want to sound particularly needy, he was just wondering.

"Check out the Garden, make sure there's no surprises left." Zell standing to his feet and looking around the area. It seemed that most of the monsters in the area along with most of the landscape was completely destroyed. Of course the landscape wasn't really that good to start with.

"Zell...Nida's in the ship, he's in really bad shape." Cho asked.

! - ! - !

Zell wasn't a doctor, but it didn't take one to detriment Nida needed to get to a hospital, right now. The fact that he'd just coughed up blood on to his shirt was a dead give away. "Wow, he just can't seem to catch a break." Zell sighed. He wondered how Nida came to be in this bad of a condition, Nida was the one that knew how to avoid these kinds of situations, and was always smart enough to avoid injury during them.

"What do you mean?" Cho asked. What was that suppose to mean?

"First the heart attack and now this, there's no telling what else I missed during time compression. What happened to him?"

What? Cho hadn't heard anything about that. "Well he was trying to rescue Squall in the Ragnaork, but those monsters got to him." Cho explained.

"Yup it was pretty bad, the ship got cut in half and _both_ parts blew up." Seifer added, imitating what happened with exaggerated hand gestures.

Zell shot him a small look, sure Cho had explained how Seifer had helped him out, that didn't mean he trusted him. "Hmm…I'm sure Ester's hospitals are going to be to busy after everything that happened around here. You should take to FH, we're going to end up taking the Garden there anyway."

Being the only one here, Zell had the unfortunate task of getting the Garden there.

"Alright…" Cho gave a small nod to Zell, then looked back Seifer. "Are you coming with me?"

Seifer just shrugged an indifferent agreement and took his usual seat, he'd come to far just to leave Cho now, and he didn't like to leave things unfinished.

Zell just looked at the back of his head in disbelief, a million questions were going in his mind that he didn't feel like asking right now. Why was Seifer --...ah, forget it. His mind was more focused on Bahamut whom he reluctantly left outside, Seifer wasn't a concern anymore because of the distinct knowledge that he could win in a fight against him. That kept him from getting too mad at any comment Seifer could make.

! - ! - !

Zell left the airship, watching from the ground as it soared threw the skies toward Fishermen's Horizon. With a small sigh for Nida's sake he knelt down again where Bahamut lay undisturbed.

"I really don't wanna leave you out here by yourself." Zell said pleadingly, giving the GF a soft kiss on the cheek.

"I'll be fine." Bahamut reassured him, unable to do anything but stare up at the sky because it hurt to bend any part of his body that moved any inch of his back.

He didn't think so. Zell curiously poked him on the side, making the dragon cringe in pain. "What of I monster attacks you?" He asked worriedly.

Bahamut shifted his body slightly and swung his idle tail, ignoring the immense, searing pain that came when he slammed it back down on the ground. Despite how much pain he was in and how much he had to struggle to do that once simple move, he left behind a deep imprint that clearly showed off his power.

Zell was impressed at it the dragon's resolve more then his strength. "That had to hurt…." he sighed, looking at the tail. "Ok, that may help you from this side, but what if something attacks you from behind?" He rubbed Bahamut's head softly with his finger as in implication.

Bahamut opened his mouth with a sharp in hail, charging the reminisce of a Mega Flare as he did. Also proving his point.

Point taken. "Hmm….I still don't wanna leave you here…" He was too worried about him to just leave him alone, besides, he was feeling to guilty to do it even if he wanted too. So his eyes inanely drifted over to the GF standing at his side with a similar worried expression on his face "Carbuncle?"

Carbuncle didn't even look up, he already knew what Zell was thinking, maybe it was because they had been junctioned for so long. "I got it. But just in case there are still some of those monsters in there, be careful."

Zell gave him a small nod and headed towards the Garden.

Carbuncle just watched until the boy disappeared into Balamb Garden. "You really did a number on that thing…" he said, turning his eyes toward where the Lunatic Pandora once stood. It looked like he had just saved Esther a lot of money for clean up.

He grimaced at the thought, at the inability to control his own attack. "I still need more practice." He lifting an arm and laid it softly on his chest, he'd never felt so pathetic in his life.

"I'll say, you should have seen yourself. I'm surprised you didn't break every bone in your body the way you landed." Carbuncle couldn't resist laughing, it was pretty funny.

Correction, now he'd never felt so pathetic. "Hn." Bahamut only rolled his eyes and watched the sky.

Yeah, like Carbuncle was going to let this go that easily. "I never knew you were that strong…" Carbuncle jumped gracefully on to Bahamut's chest, just soft enough not to agitate his back, and looked him in the eyes.

But after a few seconds he looked away, the light expression shifting into something more solemn as if he'd just seen something or thought of something depressing.

It was so sudden, completely unlike him..."Bahamut….?" Carbuncle seemed to be reluctant to ask whatever he was thinking, but forced himself to do anyway.

"What?" Bahamut pried his eyes away the sky now mostly devoid of any clouds after Ifrit's attack and looked down at him. He began studying the look on his face, it was so...un-Carbuncle like.

"I wanna asked you something…" He really was stalling but he seemed determined to ask whatever was on his mind...eventually.

After being together with Carbuncle so long it became fairly simple to determine what the other was talking about even if they didn't say it, or if they had and it made no sense to others. "Is it about Zell?"

"Yeah…" Bahamut was right, they really could read each other. "Are you two happy with each other?" Carbuncle asked, his gaze shifting around for some before looking at Bahamut again.

"Yes." Bahamut nodded.

"Don't give me that look. I'm not trying to break you two up or something like that. I mean, why would I? I don't have half a shot with him."

"Carbuncle…"

"I just want him to be happy, besides, it's just it question. It doesn't mean anything." Carbuncle said, looking toward Balamb Garden where Zell had just went.

"Yes it dose, or else you wouldn't have asked." Bahamut lifting himself on to his elbow while trying to keep his back as strait as possible, he couldn't help but wince in pain when he began breathing.

"I'm really not trying to break you two up." Carbuncle said sincerely.

"I've gathered that much, something's bothering you." Bahamut said. "Just tell me what is."

Carbuncle laid down on Bahamut's stomach just above his waist, "It's not like I'm not happy for you two…it's more like--" He just couldn't seem to find the right words to describe it. "I don't know. Somethings wrong and I can't figure out what, it's starting to get to me…" Carbuncle growled in frustration, looking up to the dragon for some type of answer.

Bahamut was smart, he could at lest help.

"Hmm…. " Bahamut had nothing.

"It's starting to scare me." Carbuncle buried his head in to his arms with a deep sigh.

"How so?"

"Because I don't know what it is, it's like somethings eating me up inside. I'm getting this empty feeling and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger." Carbuncle confessed.

"If there's anything I can do."

"I'll let you know… I just need to think about this before it gets worse."

! - ! - !

Shadow had unjunctioned himself soon after the ship departed. He was now laying casually on the ground behind the pilot seat.

"Why are you messing with him?" Cho sighed in aggravation.

"What? I'm just _reminding_ him I owed him an ass kicking." Seifer said innocently.

The GF in question rolled his eyes. "Foolish human, you really think you can kill me?" Shadow growled.

"Nah, I like you to much for that, I don't wanna kill you... I just want you to suffer a little."

Shadow gave in a loud bark in response that was most likely a threat. "Where did you come from?" Cho asked.

"I was awakened in this place." He said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Cho glanced back over the pilot seat.

"The Sorceress, I think that's what you called her. The female human altered time, made it one body, and I ended up this place unintentionally."

"Must be talking about time compression." Cho added.

Seifer peered over his shoulder at the wolf. " Comeback? What do you mean come back?"

"I've been to this dimension few times, when time became compacted the dimension I was in was effected, I moved to another one. But I ended up moving forward through this one's time." Shadow said.

"So you came from the past and a different dimension? And you said you've been to this one before, what was it like?" Cho asked.

He smirked at the thought. "My name was all it took to make the world fall to it's knees... It was filled with different, more powerful species, how did one as weak as the human become dominate?" Shadow asked, his voice showing he was genuinely thinking about the question as if it was too far fetched.

"I don't know. Maybe it was that we were the only one's smart enough to build weapons." Cho laughed, he couldn't believe that he'd come across a GF that had actually come here from another dimension. He wondered what it was like...

"Using other things as your strength to cover up your weakness, deceitful." Shadow growled with distaste.

"Really? And what makes you so much better then us?" Seifer shot back.

"You can't comprehend the power I have."

"I haven't seen any of it, if your so big and bad, how come nobody's ever heard or seen you before?" Seifer asked.

"My kind hasn't been back here in eras. I wouldn't expect you humans to remember... "

"And another thing." Seifer called out. Cho just shook his head knowing this line of conversation couldn't end well. "How come your friends were so easy to beat?"

"You compare _them_ to_ me_?"

It suddenly became very clear that Shadow wasn't a GF, he just appeared to be to Cho. "If you don't like us, then why don't you leave already?" Seifer asked.

Shadow lifted his head off of the ground, his ears perking as he thought...his eyes narrowed in a strained expression as if he was trying to do something... but couldn't. "I'm sealed in." His words came as a surprise as even him. He began to pant, another strained expression coming on to his face. "This world is... small, and... you humans confine themselves to even smaller places…to be trapped here, in one place... in one world, in one dimension…What is this feeling?" Shadow's voice began to trial off in confusion, lost among the mist of heavy breathes.

Time Compression wasn't in effect anymore, at lest it wasn't directly effecting their time. It had been the only thing that allowed him to get to this dimension in the first place, now that it wasn't happening anymore it trapped him here. As it stood right now he seemed to be the only one of the shadows left alive, but then again, he wasn't anything like the smaller ones, he just looked like it.

How did those other ones get here anyway?

"I'm...trapped here..." Like it was said before, he never felt much of anything before emotion wise so all of this was new confusing.

"I never picture you as being claustrophobic." Cho laughed again, he couldn't help but find the reaction funny.

Seifer found it amusing for a completely different reason. "So how dose it feel to have all of that power taken away from you?" Seifer asked in his usual taunting manner.

"…"

"I don't know what it was like where or whenever you came from, but we don't worship the ground you walk on. So you can keep ranting about the good old days or move on."

The shadow growled at him in response. "Shut up human."

"You shut up."

"Damned fool."

"You gotta lot of mouth, as soon as we get to FH, I'm taking you out on the railroad tracks and I'm kicking your ass." Seifer said.

"Why am I not surprised you managed to pick a fight with _him_." Cho said. He knew Seifer was...well Seifer, but come on, he knew just as well as he did what Shadow could do.

"Whatever brat." Seifer snorted discardingly

Cho picked up a piece of paper resting on top of the dashboard balled it up and threw it at Seifer's head. "You aren't really going to go through with this are you?" Cho leaned over his seat and looked back almost pleadingly at Shadow. He like Seifer, he didn't want to see him die.

"If he thinks he can possibly defeat me, I'd be happy to put him in his place." He said in response.

Cho sighed, it looked like this was really going to happen."… Oh yeah, what was your name?"

"…."

! - ! - !


	15. Chapter 14: Derailed

Chapter 14: Derailed

Shadow looked around his new surroundings, memorizing the unfamiliar 2 lane bridge with tracks on both sides, he wondered what this structure was meant for, and if it was just to span water then why did it have these on them. An interesting place for a fight, considering you could slow down and possibly make your opponent fall by switching from track to track rapidly. It posed no problem for Shadow, but it gave Seifer a bigger disadvantage in an already disadvantaged fight.

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Seifer spoke confidently, spinning his sword around in his left hand. He knew fighting here would be an inhibiting, but considering they were in FH this was the only place they could actually harbor a fight.

Shadow circled around him, studying him fully, everything from his posture to his scent. "Hn…" He didn't acknowledge Seifer's usual brash comments, in stead he continued studying him with a child like curiosity.

They were completely alone, Cho was at the nearest hospital with Nida, that meant there was no one to get in the way.

"I'll take that as a yes then." He said with a small smirk.

Seifer took a step a few forward to close the small gap between himself and Shadow with his sword to low to his side, almost letting the tip drag along the ground. He swung upward it in an uppercut directly beneath Shadow's torso, but the wolf easily jumped to the side to evade it. Pivoting forward, Shadow thrust his head into Seifer's stomach, hard enough to force him to stumble back. Catching himself after a few steps, Seifer came at shadow again, lifting his sword above his head and bringing it down on to Shadow.

Even with his speed he couldn't seem to hit him. Shadow jumped to the left just a hair short of Seifer's sword, then rammed his body into Seifer's legs, sweeping him off his feet. Seifer landed painfully on one of the metal railings, but ignoring the pain he rolling to the side and flipped on to his feet. All in one fluid movement he held on to handle of his gun blade with both hands and thrust it forward at the GF.

Shadow stepped back and evaded it easily, taking notice of his speed but knowing it was one he could easily match with a higher one.

Seifer ran forward and brought the blade down on to Shadow so close that he was sure he'd hit, but he moved to the right and out of it's way. As soon as the sword reached the ground Seifer dragged the blade along the ground, sweeping towards Shadow's legs.

Shadow jumped over the attack easily. Seifer tried to pull the Gunblade up from beneath Shadow and catch him while he was still in the air and couldn't dodge, but Shadow landed on the flat side of the sword before Seifer could do anything. With one paw in front of the other, it slid down the edge before Seifer could drop it.

Instead of attacking him then, Shadow jumped into the air passing just above Seifer's head. Rolling in a flip and kicking his hind legs in to the back of Seifer's head painfully.

"Uff!" Seifer dropped his gun blade unintentionally, knocked the ground and sliding to a stop a few feet away. He had to admit, Shadow was much stronger the he looked.

"Alright, I'll do it with out a weapon, it'll be faster." Seifer pushed himself on to his feet, rubbing the back of his head where he'd been struck.

Shadow only stood waiting for him, knowing he would do so.

Seifer went for another, leaving his Gunblade on the ground since it had gone to far to retrieve any way. He crouched down low, trying to grab Shadow. Shadow jumped up into the air, thrusting his head into Seifer's chin and making him fall backwards to the ground.

'Damnit.' He stifled a grown of pain, lifting his hand to the spot where he had been hit as he climbed to his feet, stumbling a little as he did so. A little disoriented but still willing to fight.

"Your not getting away from me this time!" Seifer sent a swift kick to Shadow's side. Shadow shifted lightly and blocked the blow with his shoulder, then rammed his head it into Seifer's other leg, knocking him to the ground again and sending him rolling to a stop on the next rail road track.

Seifer persistently pulled himself on to his feet, with a quick glance ahead he found that his weapon was directly between them the two of them. So he rush headstrong at Shadow again, picking his Gun Blade as he did so.

He lifted it on to his shoulder and slashed downward at Shadow, "Foolish." Shadow easily caught the blade in his mouth and with a sharp flick of his head sent Seifer flying through the air.

"!" Seifer crashed in the railing at the edge of the bridge and slid on to the ground, landing painfully on his side. He was sure he'd left a mark in the concrete. 'Where he hell did that come from?'

"Oww.." He groaned softly, rubbing the back of his head for the second time as he watched Shadow approach him. As hard as he tried, Seifer couldn't get up fast enough before Shadow pinned him down with a single paw on his chest.

"You are clearly out matched, your too slow to land a blow, probably to weak to make a difference even if you did, yet you keep attempting to attack me." He said, a questioning tone underlying in his voice.

"Yeah, that's me." Seifer tried to throw a punch to the side of Shadow's head, just like everything else it didn't end well.

Shadow lowered his head under Seifer's arm, grabbing his shirt collar with his mouth, removed his paw and flung him aside. Seifer didn't go as far this time, landing a few feet away and sliding over a protruding metal rail onto the other rail road track. "This behavior is strange." Shadow comment, circling around the downed Seifer.

"Not really." Seifer grunt, sweeping his blade along the ground towards Shadow. Shadow lunged at him, easily evading the sword. Seifer rolled to the side evadingly, then thrust his sword forward at Shadow while he was still in the air. Shadow pressed paw against the blade's dull edge and agilely pushed himself backwards, avoiding the attack.

As soon as he landed he sprang at Seifer, pressing his front paws in to his chest and knocking him back down into the ground before he could even get up. Then Shadow jumped up, landing on his stomach. "Usually humans run." Shadow told him, sitting down on him.

Seifer sent his knee upward in to Shadow's stomach, but Shadow climbed off of him before Seifer could hit him. Seifer flipped on to his feet, driving his blade forward at Shadow. Shadow stepped back and avoided it once again, he was amazingly quick. "I'm not one of them!" Seifer said fiercely, drawing his arm back throwing his sword at Shadow.

Shadow narrowly avoided it, the Gun Blade planting itself in the ground only inches from Shadow's face. He wasn't sure if Seifer had missed or didn't intend to hit him with such a critical blow. Ignoring that face for a while, Shadow ran up the blade, spring off the handle and pouncing on Seifer so fast that the boy didn't even know it was happening until he was knocked to the ground and Shadow landed on his chest again. "You see I can kill you, yet you stay and fight. You don't attempted to escape like the others."

Seifer pressed his hands against Shadow's chest and pushed him off, abruptly rolling over and pulling his sword out of the ground. Once again he shakily made it to his feet, panting in exhaustion and barely restraining himself from staggering. When Shadow hit him, he hit hard. "Heh, you think I'd run from you? Never in a million years." Seifer smirk with that same arrogant one he always had, undeterred by that fact that he was losing the fight.

A golden aura washing over his body as he reached his limit break.

Shadow became intrigued at the nature of that sudden energy, watching carefully as Seifer charge at him for the countless time. Instead of doing one of his usual ones, he poured all of the energy from limit break into his sword, making it glow a bright gold, using an entirely different one.

With a small grunt he thrust the sword forward, his movements were a lot quicker, more so usual and more then expected. Shadow just barely stepped to the side, looking up questioningly at Seifer as of asking were did that come from. Another thing he'd have to figure out about this strange new human. Out of all the all the one's he encountered, this one was the most interesting one…

"Damnit." Seifer growled in annoyment, having his attack failed he pulled the sword over shoulder, attempting to slash Shadow with it now that he was in range. Shadow crouched down under the blade and ran past Seifer's side. Kicking him in the back with his hind legs and sending him farther then before, "!" Seifer even had time to get in a thought or two, noticing that he had just flew past Cho before he crashed painfully to the ground on his stomach.

He couldn't lie, that hurt like hell.

"Oww..." Seifer slowly rolled over, it had apparently taken longer then he thought since when he finally did he saw Cho and to his surprise a heavily bandaged Nida standing over him.

Cho stared at him for a moment as if wondering what happen, and then inevitably erupted with laughter, "Who has the big mouth now!"

With anger was a driving point Seifer jumped to his feet hastily and glared down at the boy. "I'm not finished brat!"

'Yeah, he is.' Nida looked at the two and could only sigh and shake his head. Cho had explained everything that happened him in great detail, Cho had an amazing ability to describe things. It fit him, being the visual person he was. This added stress couldn't be good for his heart.

Nida had bandages over almost every part of his body, in fact it'd be easier to name the parts he didn't have them on. Which was his left leg and right arm, he was barely able to use crutches with the cast on his left arm. After a few x-rays, Nida found out that he'd broke 4 ribs and some light hemorrhaging, the bleeding was fixed with a little medication to help his blood clot. After he was bandaged from head to toe he was left alone in his room to rest, what a mistake that was. Nida was never one to like sitting around even when he was injuries, he'd get restless to easily. So he left, which was only made possible by Cho and his ability to sneak in out of places easily. Nida would have to say something about that later, he could only imagine what Cho did with that type of talent.

"What are you going to do, let him but kick your ass until he's too tired too move?" Cho shot, laughing even harder.

Shadow watched the exchange between the two in confusion. 'They appeared to be allies, yet they constantly bicker and argue like enemies. They seem to be enemies, but still they wont fight each other and are protective of one another. They talk offensively but hold no hostility in their words and are willing to put there own life on the line for the other...

And through none of this do they acknowledge my presence, they don't run like the others do, or fear that I will attack them…This behavior is puzzling.'

"You really did a number on him." Cho came from behind while the wolf was too busy thinking to care, petting Shadow on the head softly. He was about to get angry about the unwanted contact, that was until he found that it actual felt pleasant...

"Yeah whatever! He's lucky he gave up, I was just getting started!" Seifer shouted with heavy pants, sitting on the ground to catch his breath.

"So, you're the one I've been hearing so much about…" Nida said, looking over Shadow examiningly.

Shadow became suddenly interested, growing a little content because Cho had been talking about him. And some how he managed to feel sympathetic because he'd seen what happened to Nida and he saw now how it turned out.

He blamed Cho for that one.

"I thought your injuries were mortal." Shadow said rather coldly.

Nida only smiled, hardily able to believe who he was talking to. He really didn't care about the tone, from what he heard about Shadow he expected it. "Nope, it'd take more then that to kill me."

"It would seem so."

After a little bit of silent contemplation, Shadow had already decided, he wanted to feel what ever it was they felt. He was curious to see what it was like, he was curious about these humans. Why were they different then the others he'd encountered in the past? He thought all humans were alike, these one made him feel things he never felt before, but how? Why was the tall one call Seifer so brash and arrogant even against impossible enemies. Why was the smaller one he wanted so determined even if it meant death?

"Don't start spacing out on me now." Seifer walked behind Shadow, a small smile grazing his face as he began scratching behind the ear wolf's ear, "See, I could take him, I just didn't want to hurt him."

Shadow forced himself to pull away with a growl despite how it felt, now wondering how this particular human did _that_ to him.

He wanted more of it…

"Well Seifer." Nida started, looking up strait into Seifer's eyes. "I want to thank you for protecting Cho, I'm sure you've found out how--"

"Stupid." Seifer interrupted.

Cho elbowed him in the side. "Hey!"

Nida rubbed his head, it was like dealing with Cho and an anti-Cho at once, it was much more stressful then dealing with them separately. "Well, for lack of a better word, yes, how stupid Cho can be sometimes."

"Hey! Watch it."

Nida extended his hand to Seifer, not being one to hold a grudge.

Despite trying to keep his usual composure, Seifer couldn't help but become visibly surprised at Nida's demeanor towards him at the moment. 'Why isn't he...' "Nida huh?" Seifer shook his hand, why not. "Aren't you Raijin's friend?"

Nida smiled. "Yeah...what happened to him?"

"He's fine."

! - ! - !


	16. Chapter 15: 3 Days: Day 1

Chapter 15: 3 Days- Day 1

Day 1: Comforter

The repairs were underway the in the hour since it took time to assess the damages which Zell noted was done very quickly. The expert mechanics who'd built the structure in the first place estimated time until the repairs completion was 3 days if they really worked at it. The engineers at FH examined the Balamb Garden and were able to give a full report of the damages to Zell, most of which he never even noticed. Besides the two holes, the piston used to turn the ring under the Garden had been damaged when the Shadow's forced it to spin in the opposite way. The engine also suffered some damages when the piston started moving against it, along with an assortments of belt like devices.

With all of the students taking up residence in Balamb and Squall in Esther, that left Zell, Cho, Nida, and Seifer in Fishermen's Horizon with the Garden. If it was Quality not quantity, at lest Nida could pilot it. Instead of staying in the actual city, they stayed in the Garden since it wasn't out of commission residential wise, and a lot of cleaning needed to be done.

This normally would cause problems considering the nature of the residents that would be staying there for the next 3 days. Considering what had been told to him by Cho and Nida, Zell figured he could tolerate Seifer, if they stayed away from each other.

! - ! - !

Seifer walked through the familiar dormitory toward his room, wondering if they had already thrown out his stuff and replaced him. Being the head of the disciplinary committee, he got his own room with out having to be a SeeD. It was a little ironic, being the Head of the Disciplinary Committee when you were the one most in need of discipline.

He was surprised to find that everything remained just as it did the day he left. Except for the fact that all his things were tossed around on the ground, nothing that surprised him.

"Damn, this is going to take awhile…even the refrigerator got knocked over. " Seifer sighed, walking over to the large appliance that was now laying face down on the ground, slipping his hands underneath it and lifting it up. He was sure to hold the door closed so everything didn't come tumbling out, he knew he wasn't in short supply of anything.

"!" 'Whoa!' The appliance nearly slipped, leaning to the side and out of his hands. His grip on the door was lessening so he stepped forward to reclaim it, just barely he did so.

With a sigh of relief he turned it upright, 'Damn that thing is heavy.' With a small sigh of moderate relief he pushed it back into it's place against the wall. It didn't seem to have any damages. 'Hm... I wonder if my--" Seifer opened the door to see what was inside.

And everything fell out.

"..."

! - ! - !

Zell walked in to his room after what seemed like he'd been away for an eternity, still holding a sleeping Carbuncle in his arms close to his chest. 'At lest it doesn't look to bad.' The heavier things in the dorm stayed in place, everything else ended up on the ground. 'It could be worse.'

He sat down on the couch hard enough to almost be considered a fall, debating if he should sit Carbuncle down and start cleaning. But he decided against it, maybe when the GF woke up, Besides, when did he ever clean up?

Right now he was feeling a little tired himself. Sleep sounded _really_ good right now.

Zell stretched out on the couch and laid back, allowing his eyes to close. He immediately felt Carbuncle curl up even farther in his arms with a few kicks and light mumbles from the sudden change in position. Zell mused that if he curled up anymore he'd be a perfect green ball.

'This thing really must be bothering him…' Zell said to himself, tightening his embrace and feeling Carbuncle relax a little more in the firm warmth of his arms.

...After a few seconds of laying idle he officially accepted the fact that he wouldn't be able to sleep no matter how much he wanted too, this was worrying him to much.

His mind was inadvertently searching for something to help Carbuncle or at lest find out why he was acting like this

! - ! - !

"Are you sure you can clean this place up by your self?" Nida leaned back easingly into a sitting position on his bed, laying his crutches aside some place nearby in an arms reach. He honestly wanted to lay down, but the pain associated with the abdomen muscles used when making that type of movement was enough to make he reluctant.

"Of course, this mess is nothing compared to my room." Cho said with a nod, standing in the door way of the bedroom. In this room just as every other one, things had been over turned and lay on the ground, though Nida's had a notable cleanliness still about it.

Of course Cho's room was worse, Nida didn't doubt that."Your room was a mess before this happened." Nida said.

"And I don't have to clean anything I didn't have to do before, so relax, you just get some rest." Cho placed his hands on Nida's shoulder, pushing him down with genital force and a wide grin.

To Nida's surprise it wasn't the one he used when scheming something, was he actually serious?

Nida let out a surprised sound as his back hit the bed."Your enjoying this aren't you." Nida said flatly, watching Cho lift his leg wrapped in a nearly full cast on to the bed next to his other one.

Cho nodded, he was actually happy to do something for Nida while he was injured. He never would have guessed that about himself, but here it was happening, go figure. "Uh-huh." And plus he loved the surprised look Nida had when he was doing something so willingly helpful.

Nida shrugged and closed his eyes, listening to Cho's fleeting foot steps leave the room. There was a bit of silence for a while before more sounds came, if he didn't know any better he would have thought Cho was was actually starting the process of cleaning…

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

After an hour or so Cho managed to finish up and do a decent job. Trying to avoid thinking Cho sub-consciously pushed his worry and concern for Nida in to the tasks he preformed, and ended up doing much more then required.

After he picked up everything and swept up the debris, Cho shampooed the carpet, scrubbed every inch of the kitchen. Then started washing the walls…halfway through he noticed he had to go back on to the carpet to do that, and ended up re-shampooing the carpet.

After more menial tasks and labor he could barely deny that the dorm wasn't clean, he was dead tired, so much so that he fell asleep while attempting to clean the couch.

That only lasted a few minutes.

! - ! - !

When Cho opened his eyes this time instead of their usual deep brown they were a glowing red. Shadow had possessed him while he slept, leaving the boy's consciousness someplace in the back of his mind where he could dream in peace.

During the actual process of shifting from Junction to possession Shadow found that he could ask Cho anything while he was asleep and he'd answer with the complete truth. Something that came about simply enough when he was checking to see if Cho was still asleep, it wasn't as if he had much to ask the boy.

Besides, he was much more focused on his heat that had finally pushed his substantial will to it's limit. It made Cho's body heat grow to surreal levels and his heart to pound almost uncontrollably. His host's body was sweating in a matter of a few seconds after it had started. All of this was because of Shadow in his body, and since they had a more physical bond Cho's body was getting just about all of Shadow's normal reactions. It wasn't normal sweat because of his high body heat, he was emitting the wolf's Pheromones.

Cho pushed himself off of the couch, taking a moment to look in the doorway of the bed room towards Nida. A small growl forced it's way from his throat and a hungry smirk formed on his lips...'...' Nope, Shadow knew Cho wouldn't like that too much. And he would most likely make Nida's injuries worse, besides, Nida would be pissed. Neither he didn't want Nida mad at him or he didn't want to deal with it later, Shadow had enough sense of mind to know he had to find some one else.

He was a little disappointed though, he could see why Cho liked him so much and he wouldn't have minded going for Nida. He seemed to be the most rational and the smartest of the group.

With an annoyed growl Cho left Nida's room, mainly to make sure he didn't lose all control…not yet at lest. 'Damnit.'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Seifer looked around his room, his hands resting on his hips with a stratified feeling spreading over him. He did a decent job of cleaning this place up, considering he stopped to sleep twice along with a few other distractions he submitted to.

'Finished, finally.' It was pretty late now, after all of the days activities and then getting the Garden to FH to start repairs and clean up it, a fair amount of time had passed. Seifer was never one to go to sleep at normal hours, he was always up late by some manner of defiance or insomnia. As of now it was about 1 in the morning, something normal of him.

He pulled his coat off, tossing it aside in it's usual spot next to his gun blade case as he walked into his bedroom. Then with out cause he completely halted. "And what are you doing here in the middle of he night?" Seifer asked, not bothering to turn and see who it was, he already knew who it was with out looking.

It was that scent… The one from before when he and Cho found the second Ragnarok. It drove his body crazy, and he remembered it _extremely_ well since then, how could he not know it. Seifer turned around after a few seconds of silence meaning he wasn't going to get a one, it was who he thought it was. Looking over Cho he noticing the immediate difference.

Those familiar red eyes from before... it wasn't Cho, it was Shadow in Cho's body. And he was wearing nothing but a pair of pants, which Seifer he'd the unfounded desire to remove right now. He had to force himself to switch thoughts before he started to get certain reactions.

Damn Pheromones.

That needing look on Cho's face as he stood silently there, It was bound to make Seifer lose it in a minute or so. "So what do you want." A stupid question that Seifer asked intently, seeing that Cho was having a harder time controlling himself then Seifer was. Mainly because he wasn't trying.

His chest rose and fell with heavy pants, covered with streaks of sweat that rolled down his torso and dripped from his short brunet hair. "You." Cho spoke in a voice as needy as he looked, saturated in the deeper undertone's of Shadow's. His mouth fell open slightly with heavier pants, the only warning given was the tensing of his muscles before the boy pounced on Seifer, pushing him back on to the bed and landing on his chest. That kind of jump definitely wasn't possible for Cho, everything about the movement was inhuman and filled with animal instincts. Like how Cho's lip lifted lightly to bare fangs that he didn't have.

Seifer looked up at him questioningly, watching the unsure expression on Cho face as he lent down for a kiss. This kissing thing must have been Cho's influence, he knew humans liked this type of thing. He wondered would Seifer be submissive or would he fight him. He didn't seem to be protesting this as much as Shadow thought, and he didn't have any problem making Seifer angry doing this.

He liked Seifer when he was angry, he was always so much fun to play with that way.

Seifer was submissive so far, moaning into the kiss and closing his eyes. Shadow didn't get a word of protest, he grinned impishly, he was free to do what he wanted with him…

He spoke too soon. Seifer wrapped his arms around Cho's waist and pulled him sharply to the side with a roll, changing positions so that he was on top and holding the boy down. "It doesn't work like that spiky."

"You want this." Shadow wondered if Seifer would fight him on this, but he never thought Seifer would try and take control of the situation. He couldn't understand this, he's easily defeated Seifer in combat, he was stronger the Seifer in just about every way, they both knew it. He thought that because of that fact Seifer wouldn't even think of being the dominant one, maybe struggling a little but he wouldn't even think about doing this. Strange.

Cho reached up with that inhuman strength, pressing his hands against Seifer's chest with the intent of pushing him off when he felt Seifer leaning down, kissing along his neck with caressing, gentle touches. Maybe it was the human body he was in, but that felt oddly good to Shadow. He didn't understand how, Seifer was barely doing anything at all but he was causing such a reaction. "Heh heh."

"What are you doing?" Cho bit down on his lip, a habit Shadow knew had to come from Cho, to hold any sound that threatened to come forth. He was finding it much harder to move then he anticipated.

"Dose it matter?" Seifer began to grind his hips against the boy's, rubbing his erection teasingly against his through the restricting fabric.

Shadow didn't respond well to teasing, Cho's body started to grow hotter from anticipation, his already evident erection grew painfully hard only to be made worse by the constricting fabric covering his lower body. Much to Shadow's frustration. 'Why do these Humans wear so many layers?' It was something he never understood, he was sure humans knew what was beneath their clothing, they were all basically the same, so what were they trying to conceal? Maybe in temperate weather since Humans didn't have any natural protection but other then that he didn't understand it.

Shadow aggravatingly forced those thoughts from his mind as Cho reached down and hastily began unbuttoning his pants, nearly ripping them off in his restlessness but managing to control himself long enough to push them down to his knees, it was as far has he could reach with Seifer pinning him down.

Cho finally found the will to resist after a few idle, almost eternal seconds of being inhibited by the new found sensation, he took a hold of Seifer's for arms and rolled sharply. With his strength he was easily able to over power the human and climb on to his chest once again. "Your resisting me?" He asked with genuine uncertainty, shifting around slightly to kicked off the pants that lay half way down and pushed off his boxers.

Now that he was completely free of clothing he immediately began to feel better, at lest not as aggravated at his current state. Any cooling he gained from the reduction of fabric was off set by a still steadily rising heartbeat and body heat giving Cho a flushed look. With his strength and speed, Cho was able to seize both of Seifer's hands before they could force him away and pin the above his head with one hand, using the other to forcefully rip off his pants covering his lower body.

He was going to be mad about that later, he couldn't concentrate on it now. "You sound surprised." Even as he spoke he was fully focused on what Cho…well, Shadow was doing to him. "I don't give up with out a fight." He smirked that same arrogant smirk as he leaned upward and pressed his lips to Cho's in another kiss. He forced his tongue into the idly closed mouth, mingling with the unsure opposition that was Cho's.

Shadow still found this action perplexing, he wasn't sure why humans did this so much, so many useless actions. Sex was just something done to relieve an urge, some primal desire wasn't it? So why did humans put so much into?

Cho began mimicking Seifer's actions for his own sense of learning, putting more into the simple action then he did their first one. It quickly became a battle in itself, the tongues dueling between parted lips in it's own fight for dominance. When he put some effort into it, Shadow did find a level of pleasure in it, Seifer seemed to know what he he was doing, he seemed to know what to do and what placed to do so to invoke the greatest effect, Shadow seemed to be losing. And liking it, much to his discontentment.

"I want you." Cho pulled back, panting with heavy, audible breaths from the kiss. "Your the one that's going to be my mate." He's glowing red eyes rolled Seifer's body, examining every detail at the completely naked boy laying beneath him, if possible making him harder then he already was.

This human intrigued him to limits nothing else had. Shadow had spent his time in this place studying and watching, trying to figure out the behavior of these humans he'd encountered. Wondering why weren't they like the ones he'd encountered the last he'd been in contact with this race. And this one...Seifer, he remembered humans preferred to be named, why was the way he was. What ever the reason, Shadow liked him.

Seifer's smirk grew even wider, taking advantage of Cho's distraction by slipping his wrist abruptly out of his hold. With a swift movement Seifer grabbed a hold of Cho's shoulders and rolled over, once again he pinned the boy under him again. "I'm honored." He retorted sarcastically, pressing his lips against the overheated flesh of Cho's chest. "You think too much."

Cho planted his hands on Seifer's shoulder. "What dose that--!" He was about to push him off again when another odd feeling made him halt all together.

Seifer's hand slip down between his legs, moving with feather soft touches across the sensitive skin until he reached his entrance. A finger pushed into the ring muscles and Cho tensed from the unexpected intrusion.

'S—Seifer...' A sharp gasp expelled as his mouth fell open and his eyes closed, leaving surreal traces of red from under the lowered eye lids. His grip involuntarily tightened instead of repelling as he wanted, he couldn't seem to push him away. "Wh-...Wha...What are you doing?"

"Why don't you just stop fighting me and find out." Seifer slowly down Cho's heated torso, leaving a tail of kisses and licks across his stomach.

"Your mine...I...can't be..." Cho shifted around under Seifer's administrations, forcing the other boy to place his hand on his chest to keep him still. Shadow found himself really wanting to let Seifer continue, more then anything, and he hated it. He didn't know how Seifer knew exactly what to do to get such a reaction, or why he was so inhibited by it, another interesting thing about this human. All he knew was that as much as he didn't want to admit it, he wanted more of it, even though this wasn't how he pictured this situation going. "...not by you..."

Seifer lifted himself off of Cho slightly, pausing to reposition himself a little lower and bringing himself face to face with the boy's fully hard length, lightly tented red with his excessive need. "Heh, I'm yours am I?" Seifer gently slipped another finger into Cho's entrance, ceasing his thrusting to gently rub against his inner walls in a circular, massaging motion.

"Uhhh!" Cho winced and arched upward with a loud moan, feeling Seifer wrap his mouth around his needing erection. He felt like he lost any remaining ability to resist, lost in this new sensation of pleasure he'd never experienced. He felt like he was completely helpless, and wanting more.

'...No...' A small sound forced it's way past his lips, something he tried desperately to force back and repress, never the less it made it through no matter how inaudible. And Shadow hated more then anything hearing it from himself.

Seifer ran his tongue along the bottom of Cho's erection with soft, teasing sucks and he thrust his fingers in to Cho contrarily harder. The two perfectly blending feelings of pleasure was enough to force that sound from him again. It didn't go unnoticed.

That was something more canine than human. 'Was that…a whine?'

It was surprising at first, but when he realized it was what he thought it his was Seifer's smirk grew into a large grin. He lifted himself up and laid on to of the smaller frame, kissing along Cho's neck softly. "Say it…" He whispered.

Shadow knew exactly what he wanted to hear, but he _wouldn't,_ he couldn't say it. There was no way in hell he would. "No..."

Seifer thrust in harder, his fingers brushing gently against a spot that was surprisingly sensitive. Cho let out a startled yelp followed by a loud moan as his body arched upward against the larger one above him. "Say it." Seifer whispered, burying his face in Cho's neck with soft bites and sucks along his collar bone.

Each touch, each suck, each thrust drove him closer and closer to his limit. A long sought after release that Shadow felt as if he'd been waiting an eternity to reach, 400 years to be exact. He was so close to it now, so close that he couldn't resist, even his pride wasn't enough to stop him from giving in. "I..I-" He was was reluctant to do so.

"Say it." Seifer's hand reached down and wrapped tightly against the boy's erection pressed firmly against his stomach, moving a long Cho's cock with a slow, teasing motion.

The boy's face grimaced, the possessed red eyes narrowed as his own actions and he looked away with a defeated sigh. "I'm…yours."

Not exactly what Seifer was going for, something more along the lines of 'I give up'. But this was much, much better.

Seifer's grin grew into a full smile, watching Cho become a lot more submissive when he heard his own words echoing in his mind. A small blush appeared across his face as he clinched his eyes closed tightly to avoid Seifer's gaze, in either embarrassment or in wait, maybe both. "Just go ahead and take me... please."

Hearing that was more then enough to make him immeasurably hot, he couldn't resist that if he tried.

Damn Pheromones.

But still, something in Shadow's voice was unwilling, it was enough to make Seifer stop completely. "Are you sure about this?"

Shadow of course became inwardly angry about this, the blush spreading across his face was a bright red now as Cho turned away even farther. As if saying it once wasn't bad enough. "...Y-Yes."

Seifer climbed on to his knees, taking hold of Cho's legs and spreading them apart lightly. With no reprieve this time, he guided his own erection with his hand until he felt himself pressing against Cho's entrance and thrusting in just as quickly and roughly as Shadow had wanted it.

"Seifer…" Cho dropped his lightly up lifted head with a moaned, feeling the hard length moving inside of him. It was considerably more filling then the fingers, he could feel himself stretching forcibly around Seifer as the boy thrust the length into him as far as he could go which was well over half. He winced when Seifer pulled back, there was a deal of pain that came in hand with the pleasure, and that's how Shadow wanted it. Though Cho might not be to happy with it the next morning.

'..!' Another wine escaped from Cho's throat, followed quickly by a loud growl in a failed attempt to cover it up. Shadow was growing to hate that sound.

"Se—Seifer!" Cho shifted and squirmed, his fingers that had grown the beginnings of claws because of their possession dug into the sheets on either side of him. He cried out loudly, as cum streaming out of his cock in a well waited for release, cover his still heated torso in large amounts.

Even that smelled abnormally appealing.

Loud pants followed, promptly interrupted by more loud moans when a sharp thrust of Seifer's cock inside the smaller body forced another spurt of cum from the softening cock. Leaving Cho racing to catch his breath once more.

Seifer leaned forward, bearing over Cho as his face cringed and his hold on to boy's legs tightened substantially. "Uhaaa..." He closed his eyes and cried out with out inhabitation, halting mid thrust when Cho tightened around him and the warm constriction pushed him to his own limits. He came, filling the boy with his seed.

He weakly fell forward on top of Cho, panting heavily with his head resting just above the boy's shoulder.

There was a lengthy silence that followed.

Until Seifer finally lifted his head from where it was burred in the sheets and said. "You drove me to this spiky, this is all your fault."

'Human...' This didn't turn out anywhere near the way Shadow had expected it, he never thought he'd turn out to be the seme in a situation. To a _human_ no less, maybe he was getting soft... But either way it had happened, if it was because of his own weakness of will he deserved it. It had come to this, forced to be submissive to Seifer, that's how it worked. He was Seifer's and that's all there was to it... He was really starting to hate himself.

But overall, if he had to pick a human to be submissive to, Seifer wasn't a bad choice. He liked this human, despite the fact that he was a loud, blunt, asshole at times, and arrogant to no avail, but still….


	17. Chapter 16: 3 days Day 2

Chapter 16: 3 days: Day 2

Day 2: Last moments of happiness

Zell didn't even open his eyes but as soon as he woke up he immediately noticed something was off. He didn't feel the familiar furry ball in his arms. "Carbuncle?" He called out in a half sleep voice, stretching his now free arms above his arms and opening his eyes. His vision came into focus with a few blinks, he looked around and at first glance he found no trace of Carbuncle except for that the bed room door was left open.

"Where did he go?"

Zell contemplated taking a shower and changing close before he went to look for him. At first his worry prompted him to try and find Carbuncle first, but on second thought Carbuncle was probably fine, he could take care of himself. 'Maybe he wants to be alone?' Yeah, maybe that's why he didn't say anything before he left. ' If he doesn't come back by the time I finish... I'll go look for him.' Zell nodded to himself and headed for the bathroom.

'I wonder how Bahamut's doing.'

! - ! - !

Cho yawned and opened his eyes when he finally returned to consciousness, '...?' He found himself in the same place he'd fallen asleep in the night before. He was still on Nida's couch only something was very different. He sat up abruptly, feeling a chill at his back, in fact all over his body.

This was odd. "What happened to my clothes?" Cho shouted sleepily, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He thought he was still asleep at first. 'No, I'm awake... Where are my clothes?'

He also found that he was, or had been sweating because most of his body was still damp. With on the facts that he was sweating and missing clothing, Cho put together the only logical explanations he could think of. 'I probably got hot and took them off in my sleep…' Yeah, that sounded right. 'Where are they?'

Cho reluctantly got up off the couch and surveyed the area, he couldn't find them anywhere around. It would be hard to miss them in this clean dorm, making it obvious that they weren't there.

"What the hell? Were are my clothes!" Cho shouted, only after words did he remember Nida was in the next room and he quieted nervously, hoping that he didn't wake him up.

After his outburst he heard a stirring sound that he initially thought was Nida, but he noticed that it was coming from the Kitchen area and not from the bed room. 'Huh?' Looking in that direction he almost didn't see Shadow laying on top of the refrigerator under a cabinet.

The cabinet cast a shadow over the area so the wolf barely could be seen expect when he opened his glowing red eyes. "You like sleeping in places no one can see you?" Cho asked, watching Shadow jump off the refrigerator and open his mouth wide in a yawn. He then shook his head, shaking off any remaining sleep he still had.

"This must be the doing of you humans." Shadow snorted. "I never slept before."

"Huh? Really?"

"It doesn't make since for any logical thing to leave it self off guard for hours."

"Your too paranoid. Don't worry, nothing's gonna to jump out and try to kill you around here." Cho lifted a hand to the back of his head and smiled. "So, are you hungry? I don't think I ate anything in like 2 days." Cho rubbed his rather noisily growling stomach, when he looked down he remembered he was completely naked. "Hey, have you seen my clothes?"

Shadow couldn't exactly remember where he left Cho's clothes last night, he was in such a rush to get them off because he was unbelievably hot. "No." He said.

Cho shrugged, it wasn't like anyone was around to see him. He could probably make it back to his room before any who was here could.

! - ! - !

Zell emerged from the shower half wet, using a towel to dry his hair as he crossed the living room and headed for his room.

'Hmm...' Carbuncle still hadn't returned. Now he was starting to get worried…

! - ! - !

Cho looked around his own dorm, and despite everything that had happened it really was just as messy as he left it, nothing else had been knocked over or anything like that from when the Garden was possessed. Ignoring the clutter for the moment he walked into his bedroom and began searching through his drawers for something to wear.

It looked like the only thing that was clean was his SeeD uniform, and his usual attire of jeans and a hooded green sweatshirt. "Why not, I haven't worn it once." Cho said, taking out the uniform..."Nah, I should save it." He returned the uniform carefully to the hanger it had been placed neatly on and placed in his closet. It was the only thing neat there, all of his other clothing were either messily thrown in the drawers of on the floor of the closet. Not the uniform though, it was neat and clean, and hung with a sense of pride.

He instead took out what he usually wore, just as he was going to put the on he took another look down at himself, he realized he better take a shower first, considering that he was still sweaty from last night…with no apparent reason why, it hadn't been hot in Nida's room.

! - ! - !

He hung his clothes on a towel rack upon entry before he walked over tot he tub and he turned on the shower. He spent a few second adjusting the two nozzles, finding the right mix of hot and cold water before stepping in and closing the door behind him.

A shower had never felt so good, it was relieving to wash off an extremely hard few days, he was tempted to say until the hot water ran out. But he thought better of it, a loud growling of his stomach reminded him he was much too hungry to do anything like that.

So he and climbed out, pulling the towel off of the door where it was hanging and began drying off. After he deemed it good enough he wrapped the towel around tread across the white tiled floors to the door, notably leaving the water running.

He almost thought he was in a different dorm when he steeped out of the bathroom. "You cleaned up, thanks." Cho said. He was pleasantly surprised find that Shadow had cleaned. The layer of undisorganized mess that had been left on the floor was all picked up and either put away or thrown out. Cho rested both hands on his waist and lead forward toward the wolf with a smile "Let me guess, you couldn't stand how dirty this place was?"

Shadow snorted, mainly at the fact Cho was right… and though they hadn't been together long that the boy could already read him. He didn't like the prospect of _anyone_ reading _anything_ off of him. But it did make him wonder, Was he really that predictable or was this human more perceptive then he gave him credit for. Was he--

"You must be really dirty from all that fighting." Cho said suddenly. "You must need a bath." Seeing that Shadow still wasn't catching on, Cho moved behind the GF and tried to give him a nudge toward the bath room. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" Shadow's voice was filled with annoyment.

"Exactly what I said, giving you a bath." Cho said. And before Shadow realized it Cho had managed to get him into the bathroom and he was right in front of the bathtub with Cho pushing him in.

"Why are you--"

"Just get in." Cho gave one, last forceful push that made Shadow lose balance and gave him no choice but to step forward in to the tub to catch himself unless he wanted to fall in.

He was met by a rush of warm water from the shower head. He barked in unsuspecting surprise, his ears perking from suddenly being suppressed by the spray. Taking the opportunity, Cho grabbed a bottle of shampoo sitting on a rack beside the sink and knelt down beside the tub.

The next thing he felt was Cho pouring a cold liquid out of the bottle over his back that made him squirm and shift. "I can't do it if you don't be still!" Cho shouted, some pouring the white shampoo on Shadow's head between his ears and then trailing it across his back excessively.

"I didn't ask for you to do this at all!" Shadow barked. "Leave me the hell alone."

Shadow tried to climb out of the tub but Cho held him down before he could lift a paw. "You needed it." Cho wrapped one arm around Shadow's head, holding him with all his strength while he just barely managed to reach out to and turn the nozzles mounted on the wall in the opposite direction.

The water raining down harshly on Shadow abruptly ceased. "What did you put on me?" The wolf growled suspiciously. He want people putting strange things on him, it could have been poison for all he new.

"Shampoo." Cho began to massage the shampoo in to his fur with his fingers, spreading it over every part of his body he could reach. A thick, foamy lather formed in the black fur, one that grew thicker as Cho massaged his fingers through the wetter area.

Shadow grew was quiet and seemed to calm down, he had to admit that it felt good, the way Cho's fingers pressed into his tense muscles, easing them with massaging circles. He didn't mind it so much. The thing he took the most notice of was the scent of the shampoo, he could smell it even stronger then Cho could, and it was... nice…he didn't know what that scent was and he already liked it.

"What's this scent?" He asked.

A small smile appeared on Cho's face. "It's Vanilla, smells good huh."

"Yes…"He admitted. Shadow looked back to find the source of that other present feeling,and he found that half his body was covered in white foam. '?'

"Giving the dog a bath huh?"

"I'm not a dog." Shadow immediately growled.

'Huh?' Cho looked over his shoulder when he heard the familiar voice. It Carbuncle standing directly behind him, how he'd managed to get their unnoticed was beyond Cho.

His voice may have sound completely normal, but Cho could easily tell by the look on his face that he wasn't alright. His expression seemed almost void, hollow, as if he was looking at him but wasn't focusing or looking completely past. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking a walk, I saw the door open." Carbuncle laid down behind Cho with his head resting comfortably on his paws and watched Shadow, who looked back at him.

"Oh yeah, Carbuncle this is Shadow, Shadow this is Carbuncle." Cho introduced the two, getting a disregarding look from Shadow.

Carbuncle didn't even seem to pay attention to the response. "Nice to meet you." He greeted, burring his head in to his arms and closing his eyes.

That wasn't the response Shadow was expecting, he thought it would be more like 'Aren't you one of those things that attacked the Garden?' or something along those lines. 'Why didn't he...hn.' If Carbuncle didn't immediately associate him with that event, Shadow figured he could probably tolerate him.

Shadow closed his eyes as he felt foam rolling down his face, Cho was cleaning his head, focusing on the spot between his ears.

"Heh heh." The boy couldn't help but laugh a little when he saw Shadow completely covered in soap, the usually pitch black fur was white with tinny bubbles, the sight was well worth a picture. "You should see yourself." Shadow would probably be mad at him if he took a picture, so he decided against it. But on the other hand he was aways mad so why not.

Shadow let out a small offending growl of surprise when he felt the water being turned on again. He was so busy paying attention to Cho's treatment that he wasn't even paying attention. The foamy soap was rinsed from his fur, but he was pleased when that Vanilla scent was left behind, he was really beginning to like it. '?' He opened his eyes and looked up when he heard Cho laughing, again, Carbuncle also looked slightly amused. This sight was much more worthy of a picture then the last.

His fur whom no one knew how heavy it truly was, was now hanging down in a mop like covering over him, dripping wet, some even fell over his eyes. Shadow shot him a glaring look before he shook the water off himself, sending a rain of it all over Cho and Carbuncle.

"Hey!"

That seemed to send the message better then a glare with fur over his eyes.

Cho only laughed again, thankful that he was still in only a towel instead of clothes since it had been a surprisingly large amount.

"Damn, that's a lot of water." Drying himself off as best he could with a few shakes, Carbuncle picked himself off the ground and headed out of the bathroom, heading for the couch in the living room while Cho took the towel off his waist and dried himself off. Then used it to finish drying Shadow's fur and finally releasing him from the bathroom so that he could put on his clothes.

Shadow was the first to emerge, his furry was considerably more messy after having just gotten wet. The sound of his stomach growling alerted his presence more then his footsteps, especially since people rarely heard his foot steps.

"Sorry Shadow, I don't have any dog food." Cho followed, now fully clothed.

Shadow shot him a look, not appreciating being indirectly called a dog. "Do I look like a pet to you."

"You haven't even tried it yet, you might like it… I don't have any so don't worry about it."

"_You_ don't, but I know someone who dose." Carbuncle said.

"Who?"

Carbuncle jumped off of the couch and walked towards the door. "I'll show you."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Zell wondered through the halls of the dormitory, it took him a few moments to figure out where to look but as soon as he did he headed for the first place he though to check. Which was Cho's room. But when he got there he found the place completely empty.

"Maybe he's in Nida's room."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Cho staggered into to his room a few minutes, a large bag of dog food held tightly with both arms, it was so large...or Cho was so short, that it obstructed his vision completely. He managed though.

It came from Riona's room, it was the largest bag available since Angelo could eat like a Marlboro.

Carbuncle and Shadow followed behind him, as soon as they entered the room he two returned to the positions they held before they left. Carbuncle perched on the couch, watching curiously, and Shadow sat down on the ground some place nearby.

"Man, this thing is heavy!" Cho dropped the bag down on the counter in his kitchen with a sigh of relief. 'What can I put it in...A bowl, duh.' Cho headed over to the cabinets mounted on the wall, he had to climb on the counter to reach it, a true testament to his height and how short he was. He found the largest one he could and jumped down.

Cho scooped a sizable amount out of the bag with the bowl and sat it down next to Shadow.

He looked up at Cho, then down at the bowl before sniffing the contents suspiciously, "I don't want it." He said immediately and pushed the bowl back rejectingly.

Carbuncle laughed, he couldn't help it when he saw how abruptly Shadow pushed it back.

"You haven't even tasted it." Cho grabbed on to Shadow's head with both hands and pushed it down into the bowl.

This line of action ensued for a full minute.

"Fine I'll try it dammit, now let me go before I kill you." With no other choice if he wanted to breathe, Shadow opened his mouth to taste the substance, immediately he spit it back out.

"It taste horrible." Shadow pushed the bowl away with his paw this time, getting another laugh from Carbuncle.

This was harder then Cho expected, how could someone who hasn't eaten in two days be so picky? "It's good for you." Cho argued, trying to get him to at lest tolerate the taste.

"When then why don't you eat it." Shadow growled.

"Me huh?" With that thought in mind Cho lifted the bag off of the counter and read the back of it. "Because I don't needed my fur to be thick and lustrous, I don't need to have more energy, nor do I need a healthier immune system or the other really good things this food dose for you." He dropped the bag discardingly. "I don't even _have_ fur, I already have more energy then I know what to do with, and they have vitamin C pills if want a healthier immune system."

"I'm still not eating it, you can just give me the vitamin C pills and more shampoo, I don't need more energy." Shadow turned his back the food completely and laid down next to an amused Carbuncle on the couch.

He had to give him _something_ to eat... "I guess... I have to make something then." Cho dropped his head sighed. With no other choice he walked over to the refrigerator and looking inside. 'Hmm...' It looked like he didn't have anything plain, and plain I mean something he didn't have to do any work making, so it looked like he'd have to…pause for shutter, cook.

The problem was he couldn't cook of his life depended on it, Nida aways made him something... man he missed Nida right now... it looked like he'd have to just try it and hope it came out edible.

"Alright, I got eggs…cheese…maybe if I mix em' together it will come out even better. I wonder if I could pull off pancakes…Better throw in some meat too. Bacon, Sausage… I think that's enough, Oh yeah toast.'

"You can cook?" Carbuncle asked.

Cho sighed again. "No."

! - !- !

5 minutes later

! - ! - !

Shadow was the first out of the room, his sensitive nose was overwhelmed by the imperious, burning scent of smoke.

"How did you manage to burn…everything?" Carbuncle asked, a small amount of laughter in his voice.

"I warned you I couldn't cook." Cho coughed, sitting against the wall in the hall and watching the smoke pour out of his dorm. Carbuncle just laughed, it was actually funny how this all happened.

Carbuncle tried to save this moment the best he could to his memory, he was actually happy despite how empty he felt... He _had_ to savor this moment, because he knew that this would be the last time he'd feel like this for a while, maybe ever. Whatever was happening to him had grown much worse then he ever though it would.

That's why he left Zell, and why he was about to leave now. He felt like if he didn't he'd snap and lash out for no reason or something like that. With emptiness came this extreme feeling that was similar to anger though he wasn't at all mad, it was almost a new emotion that that didn't have a name. All he knew was it was mental hell, and if it continued like it would eventually make him do things that he didn't want to. Mainly to the people he cared about, that's why he had to get away…

"I should go before I suffocate." Carbuncle said, the laughter draining out of his voice, completely replaced by that emptiness by the time he said the last word.

"Huh?" Cho looked at him as the small GF walked away hastily, he knew _something_ was wrong... 'Carbuncle...what's with you?' Despite his worry he let Carbuncle go, knowing he probably needed to be alone right now. 'Yeah maybe..I'll check on him tomorrow.'

'I hope your alright…' Cho said to himself, watching him walk out of sight. "Yeah, See ya."

! - ! - !

Zell searched the second floor but it all futile. He noticing that hole that had been tore into the class room had already been fixed. But other then that once again he found no sign of Carbuncle…

! - ! - !

"What the hell did you burn?" Seifer waving his hand in front of his nose to clear away the remaining smoke as he came in to range of Cho's room.

"I was trying to cook." Cho said annoyedly.

He cuffed his hand over his noise. "Trying is right." Seifer walked in to Cho's room with his head bowed lightly since all the smoke risen to the ceiling, he found that the air was clearer inside then out.

"Like you could do better." Cho said, seeing it was all right he returned to his room and took a seat on the couch with closed eyes.

"I could." Seifer surveyed the kitchen, noticing what Cho was _trying_ to make and what he did wrong, which was just about everything. "Was he trying to kill you?" Seifer glanced down at the wolf standing at his side as he began scratching behind Shadow's ear. Which Shadow no longer had any objection to since last night….

"Funny." Cho threw a book at his head, Seifer, who was surprised that Cho owned any at all, caught it before it could hit him and threw it back, also missing.

"Yeah whatever." Seifer looked at the bag of dog food sitting on the counter in front of. "Why didn't you just eat this?" He asked.

Shadow growled.

"He doesn't like it." Cho told him.

Seifer dug his arm into the back and picked up some of it, noting the smell, and then tasted it for some reason unknown to even him. "No wonder, it taste like crap. How can you expect him to eat this?"

Shadow noticed once again that they were talking like he wasn't even there, he didn't like that.

"It's good for him…" Cho at first was about to go into great detail on the issue, he was good on details, but he thought better of it and dropped it completely. "Never mind."

There was no way in hell he was going to try and make Shadow eat that, for his own safety. "Let me see if I can give you something you can _actually_ eat." Seifer walked over Cho's refrigerator and began rummaging around.

"Yeah sure." Cho said sarcastically. "It's going to be just as bad as mine."

"Just for that, you don't get any."

"Hey wait!"


	18. Chapter 17: 3 Days: Day 3

Chapter 17: 3 Days: Day 3

Day 3: Reasonable Doubt .

Finally Shadow opened his eyes, despite just doing so he'd been awake for an hour or so, but elected to stay where he was rather then move. His vision was greeted with the unusually blinding flash of light that made him shut them quickly again with a growl. This didn't make sense, usually the normal light of the room didn't bother him but now it was unbearable, why?...Why? Why did this light hurt so much?

His mind went over yesterday during his process of thinking over the last hour, it was a large and important piece to what he was thinking about. It in itself was what made him think.

Yesterday.

Seifer had in fact showed that he knew what he was doing when he cooked, at lest to a point, Shadow could remember very distinctly how good it smelt, but of course anything smelt good in comparison to that dog food crap Cho was trying to feed him. Sense of smell was the strongest thing tied to his memory since he was a wolf, the one thing he could recognize something by over everything else was it's scent. Like every time he smelt vanilla, he'd associate it with Cho and the shampoo he used to give him a bath, even after one use.

The food itself wasn't too bad, it was actually good, but almost anything tasted good after being deprived for two days. Anything except for dog food.

And Seifer continuously told Cho how much he approved of his own cooking while he held a full plate in front of his face and ate. It was one behavioral pattern of many that confused Shadow , they were obviously something along the lines of allies or friends but Seifer wouldn't give him any food, he teased and taunted him with it instead.

Shadow started to understand the behavior a little better when Seifer finally let him have it, it must have been something humans in general or just they did, Shadow decided it was just an action for enjoyment, form of play (that's what humans called he thought.) that they used with each other. It was strange though,.Cho didn't exhibit that same type of behavior with Carbuncle or Nida, Cho and Carbuncle were more friendly with each other.

Nida and Cho had an mixed type of relationship, most time they had the same one Cho and Carbuncle had, and had no problem exhibiting the type Cho and Seifer had with other. Shadow at first wondered was it because they were involved, did everyone who were lovers have the same type of relationship?

No, when he thought about it again that couldn't be right. Different types of friendships and depended on different type of people, every human had a different type of personality. These humans were so confusing.

After breakfast, Cho volunteered to clean up before he depart. Seifer went with him, saying he had nothing better to do which was probably right so Shadow followed with out much thought into the behavior.

Shadow began to notice more things about his new mate now, though Seifer technically had calmed Shadow as his own, he didn't act like it. Shadow was accustomed to the treatment that when someone had been clamed, they were a subordinate from that point on. He'd lived on that thought for hundreds of years, it was right, it was how things were. But Seifer treated him just the same as before, exactly like he treated Cho.

Just as he called Cho a brat, he called Shadow a dog, knowing that he was the farthest thing from it. In fact, one of them really knew _what_ Shadow was exactly, the unknown seemed to scare these humans, it also confused him. It was their nature as humans, they always wanted to destroy things they didn't understand, it was a instinct that resided since the species' creation….No one could possibly understand what Shadow really was but yet…

Damn humans, they were so confusing.

After Cho cleaned up the mess from breakfast, which in retrospect was unusual considering the state of his room when Shadow first saw it. He headed, naturally, to Nida's room, once again Shadow had to stop and think about his behavior. Cho was extremely worried about Nida's well being even though he was clearly fine, or at lest would be, humans healed. He showed him more attention and more care to him then he had before.

Usually, the injured were ignored and expected to keep up normal pace, if not they were shunned or even killed if their pace had fallen enough below par. Or at lest that's what Shadow was used to, that's how it worked, that's how it always worked for him.

Maybe it was because the type of relationship they had?

Cho did just about everything for Nida, even though Nida protested most of the treatment Cho constantly insisted…This was new, not only did he show more care, he did everything he could possibly do for him.

It made Shadow feel sorry for Nida, being that helpless, at lest that's who Cho's actions made it seem like…this empathy was also new, what most likely came with the other things he felt when he was with them.

Why were all of these new sensations coming about so suddenly, he'd been alive for hundreds of years and never experienced anything like this, anything like everything he'd felt here. It was starting to scare him, he'd never feared _anything,_ he didn't know what was happening to him. It was like a fear of pain, only these feeling were completely opposite and he didn't know what direction they would turn. He was beginning to think something was wrong with himself…

Another thing he found questioning was the concept of a Birthday. It was only a date used to mark age by, age was a measure of one's superiority, the it itself had no real meaning. They however treated with value, as something special. It was Nida's Birthday, marking 18 years of age. Age didn't have the meaning it had here where Shadow came from.

It seem to have the same underlining concept in both places, only they thought it was an occasion to be celebrated. So they ended up taking him to different spots in Fisherman's Horizon to do so, Shadow also noted that they ignored all of Seifer's request for places. He couldn't understand why they would read so much in to such a trivial thing. They did ask Shadow when his was, and he made a note to himself to track it on their calendar, which he just reminded himself of now.

After a few hours or so, Seifer started making pointless excuses for himself to leave the two of them. It was puzzling, it came about so suddenly, and Seifer had seemed to be enjoying himself up to that point. It wasn't like he had anything else to do just like Shadow didn't, he didn't appear sick or tired, and most of the world didn't like him so he doubted Seifer had few other friends that'd be important enough.

Even stranger, he took Shadow with him. Shadow didn't exactly want to leave so suddenly, he was enjoying watching the day unfold, studying the humans. Plus, Shadow had nothing to do with any other outside affairs, but after audibly showing his protest he went with Seifer anyway. Only because Seifer had clamed him, not because he wanted too, he made that point clear.

Seifer didn't take him anyplace in particular, and when he asked him why they'd left, (Why he'd left and forced him to come alone.) Seifer laughed.

Shadow didn't like being laughed at.

He told him that Cho and Nida needed to be alone only in different words, another thing Shadow didn't understand. Maybe it was because of the relationship between Cho and Nida, and after a few minutes of being alone with Seifer Shadow could see the appeal of separation.

It was some how different then when being around Seifer with more people, being alone with Seifer gave him a chance just to simply talk with him. Conversation wasn't something Shadow particularly enjoyed, it was one sided at best. But everything was different when they were alone, Shadow gained a sense of... for lack of a better word, enjoyment, being with Cho and Nida, but in spite of his lack of participation it was better being alone with Seifer on some level.

It only when they were by themselves and nothing was there to interfere with there conversation and his thoughts, Shadow was started to realize that he had feeling of contemptment for Seifer, ones deeper then when he had sex with him. Strange.

It was stronger, it made him want involvement with him besides the ones he had now while he was in heat. Those new found feeling also started to confuse him, much like everything else that was happening.

It made him more willing to do what Seifer asked him to (quite possibly the only reason he left Cho alone), it made him want to be around Seifer more. And it was really and truly scaring him now.

How can someone do this to him? How could anything cause this type of reaction in him, let alone a _human_. He liked it, but at the same time he hated it, and he hated it more then he liked it. He didn't like feeling like that about anyone, anything that would make him more submissive was unwelcome.

He ignored it for the moment and didn't tell Seifer.

Finally, the last thing that happened last night was Seifer saying he'd wonder what it'd be like to see Shadow drinking Alcohol, or something like that, Shadow couldn't remember it clearly... it was unclear? Why was this unclear? Shadow asked what alcohol was, and Seifer was reluctant to give it to him. But eventually Seifer gave in and let him have it.

Seifer had relatively small amounts, Shadow had a lot. Mainly because he kept asking for more, not knowing this wasn't the type of drink that should have been used to satisfy a large thirst. Shadow found that he actually liked it, but what happened after that moment was a blur.

This was another thing that scared Shadow, he _never_ had a lapse in memory before. And now he had a pounding headache…

The first logical thing he went to was...'Did they…try to poison me?' It would explain the pain, the memory, this sensitivity to light...

Betrayal wasn't an uncommon thing for Shadow, where he came from betrayal was as common as air. Everyone wanted power, and they'd do just about anything to get it, you could never trust anyone.

The betrayal didn't surprise him, basing that on the fact of human nature. Human's always sought to destroy what they didn't understand, it happened one way or another, and Shadow thought, he knew it had to be happening here.

He was betrayed before, this was just like every other... only it hurt this time, not just physically, but on some level he couldn't explain. He was always unwilling to be betrayed, that was common sense, he was always on alert to head up of someone would actually do it to him. But this time he didn't expect it in the slightest bit...

All of this terrified him, no one had ever came close to doing whatever Seifer did to him physically and emotionally. And even though it happened, his feeling for everyone didn't subside at all. His mind didn't want to believe it had happened at all, some denial he couldn't explain.

It made him feel grief... he couldn't control it.

To think someone he quite possibly _trusted_ and along with others he had strong feeling towards would do this. This time it was inexplicably different, _they_ were different, different from anyone one he ever met. That's why he wasn't expecting this, and these emotions were all overwhelming…

What were this emotions? He never had any of these before, he never really felt anything before but the pain of battle and the normalcy of his own existence. These never came until he met these _humans_, these feelings of mental growing ties and some liking and submissiveness to Seifer... It was almost like he was being manipulate some how...

These humans had found away to manipulate him, but...how?

Shadow started to squirm and kick, flailing wildly to get off his back that much quicker. He was laying on Cho's couch, in-between Seifer and Nida and above Cho, who was sitting on the floor. He kicked all of them in the process, waking everyone up before he could do what he set out to and get to his feet.

Shadow was some what disoriented when he jumped down to the ground, he felt a little nauseous from all the sudden and sharp movements, so much that he stumbled and fell to the ground. 'What did they _do_ to me!' He mentally shouted, wondering what strange sound had come unwillingly from his mouth when he fell to the ground. It sounded like a strangled outcry, not something he himself could make... and much to his disappointment it had come from him. He found he wasn't any weaker, he only felt strangely.

"What the hell?" Seifer shouted loudly from the blows to his face, he opening his eyes, his vision greeted the frantic wolf. Shadow finally managed to to get enough baring to push himself hurriedly on to his feet, that rushing compared with heavy disorientedness caused him to slam his head into the edge of the table and fell painfully on the ground in front of Cho.

He was out of breath and much sicker then when he began trying to get up, all that flailing made his headache worse, not to mention slamming his head. "Liars." He said with heavy breaths.

Cho yawned sleepily, this was not how he pictured waking up... "Huh? What are you talking about?" Cho placed his hands back on to the side of the couch behind him and climbing to his feet, rubbing the side of his head where he'd been kicked. "You don't look so--" It happened just as he started to walk towards Shadow, a spike came shooting out of the wolf's back, just barely grazing past his head and scraping his shoulder enough to draw blood and fabric. "What are you doing!" Cho clamed his hand on to his shoulder quickly, this was strange...

Shadow growled angrily. "You tried to kill me… I... I should have expected it" Shadow climbed to his feet, shaking his head wearily with clinched eyes. That light was just so bright, so painful to his eyes...

Seifer blinked in confusion, where did he get that idea? "What? No one tried to kill you. What the hell are you goin' on about?" Seifer stood up with a small stretch, not feeling particularly threatened he walked forward, attempting to get closer to the wolf. Maybe if he calmed him down some then he could find out what brought on this course of thought.

"Get away from me!" Shadowed forced out 3 more long, thin spikes from his back towards Seifer. Despite the fact that he was sleepy and half paying attention he evaded the blind attacks way easily with a few side steps, watching them pass by his side and hearing the sound of the spikes go through the wall behind him.

"!" That effectively fully awakened Nida since it came dangerously close to his head, it was even worse since he wasn't currently in a position to dodge an attack. After watching more and more futile attempts by Cho and Seifer to calm down a frantic Shadow, he encourage them to back off. Seeing it wasn't working and Shadow was particularly dangerous. "Cho, Seifer, wait a minute." He abruptly reached forward and grabbed on to what ever part of Cho and Seifer he could get a hold of and pulled them back. He took a different approach, maybe if he could figure out how this supposedly attempt to kill him he could disprove it, or at lest calm he down a little. "And just _how_ did we try to kill you?"

"Y-You poisoned me!" He accused offensively, "My head hurts, I feel sick and disoriented…" Shadow shook his head again, as if trying to shake this feeling off, but it only served to make things worse.

"What are you talking about?" Cho asked. "Maybe it was a dream or something, maybe your just sick."

Sick? He'd never gotten sick in his life, ever. "You...You tried to-- Why!"

Cho rubbed his head with frustration "Damnit! I don't know where you got that idea from but we didn't try to kill you! If you don't believe me, you have to believe Seifer at lest!"

When Cho said that he clearly wanted Seifer to chime in, but Seifer seemed to be a little distracted. "Disoriented..., a headache? Sick?"

Shadow stumbled, he couldn't even seem to stand up strait. "I have to...I have to get away."

"Shadow." Nida called out haltingly "Wait a minute, tell us what happened, why do you think we poisoned you?"

Shadow shook his head "Liars! Damn Liars!" With out another thought he ran, forcing his strained eyes to open as he burst head through the door and out into the hallway. He had to get away, he didn't know why he was running, all he knew was that he just had to get away, try and get his thoughts together. At the moment his mind seemed fragmented, a messy blur. He had to find out what else would happened to his body in the effect to whatever poison he'd been given, it could get a lot worse, he could get weaker.

'Damnit...Damn them...' But... that wasn't the real reason he was running, he didn't know his way around this world, he didn't even have an idea of where he was going or what he'd do. He didn't want to kill them, but they betrayed him, he had too get away... and he knew he would have to if they really did something like this. That's why he had to leave, now.

! - ! - !

"What? What's going on?" With out hesitation Cho darted after him.

'"Hey! Stop!" Nida followed hastily after him, abandoning his crutch because he was faster with out it, though it hurt a lot more. He leaned on his right leg embedded in a nearly full cast, trying to maintain balance as he pulled it, nearly dragged it along with his left. Of course the fact that his left arm was encased in a half cast and resting in a slink nearly made him fall forward. This really hurt... 'Ow...damn...'

"Cho wait, it's too dangerous to go after him right now!" Nida called out just as he reached the door, obviously doing nothing to stop Cho who was already halfway down the hall. "We have to go after him...Seifer?"

Again, Seifer didn't seem to be paying attention...'...?' Seifer thought about it for a moment, and the more he did the more it became clear to him, all of those symptoms sounded familiar… That's when it finally fell together. 'Wait, he's not poisoned. He has a hangover.'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Zell had no luck finding Carbuncle again yesterday, he was so worried he didn't sleep last night.

He checked every inch of Fishermen's Horizon and the Garden, all of it was futile. With no desire to give up not even for a second of rest, and also with no sign of Carbuncle, Zell started from the very beginning. Currently he was in the process of checking again.

Everyone he'd asked hadn't seen him, and that was just about every one he could find. It wasn't surprising, Carbuncle was small enough to avoid being seen even if he wasn't trying 'He always hated his size...'

If there was a word stronger then worry…

Zell looked around his room again, seeing that it was exactly how he'd left it with no sign that anyone or anything had been there since his last visit.

"Damnit! Why didn't you tell me were you were going at lest." Zell growled to himself. Being back in his room tempted him to do a lot of things, he wanted so much to fall face first in the bed and sleep, Hyne he was tired, but he knew he wouldn't be able too sleep anyway.

He wasn't tired, just sleepy, and he wasn't hungry. Which made him wonder if it was the same for Carbuncle, the GF practically hadn't eaten anything in 2 days. "Where the hell are you..." Zell sighed, departing from his dorm.

"!" Much to his relief as soon as he turned around and stepped into the hallway he saw him, Carbuncle was just standing in front of the door. He looked…. Zell couldn't describe that expression, it was just completely empty.

"Zell!" As soon as Carbuncle looked up and saw him he immediately jumped in to Zell's arms and started crying into his chest.

It so sudden that it left Zell was in a daze for a moment, he almost dropped him, but he got over it quickly. "Carbuncle! Where--"

"I had to come back… " Carbuncle voice was mixed in heavy anguish, drowned in sobs that obstructed over other word that came out of his mouth. Tears streamed down his cheek as he curled into Zell's arms, trying to memorize this remotely safe felling... He was going to miss this, he just wanted to burn this into his mind so that he wouldn't ever forget it...

"Why did you leave?"

"Do you remember when I told you it felt like something was hollowing me out," He sobbed "And I couldn't feel anything."

Zell nodded. "Yes."

"It got worse…" Carbuncle couldn't begin to describe how intense this transition was. "It's feels like the world is closing in on me and I'm being crushed, I can hardly breath. Something. keeps trying to pull me down and no matter what I do I can't get away from it." He was so frantic that his words started to meld together in an incomprehensible mix.

Zell rubbed Carbuncle's head soothingly, "Calm down, I can barely understand you."

Carbuncle bit down on his bottom lip and nodded, forcing himself to speak slower. He was panting so hard that between it and the sobs he could barely speak. "Inside my head it feel like I'm falling…I'm so dizzy it driving me crazy. I don't know what I might do--"

"Wait, what do you mean you don't know what you might do?"

"There's something inside my head, I'm sure of it now. I can feel it, it's taking over me."

Zell looked down at Carbuncle, trying to think of anything that might help at lest. But he couldn't think of anything, mainly because he didn't know what was going on. All he knew was that Carbuncle sound so... afraid, scared like he'd never seen anyone scared before. He just wanted to--

Carbuncle's eyes shot opened wide and he started struggling with out reason or working, trying to get out of Zell's arms. "Carbuncle, What are you doing?" It was another sudden sift in emotions that left Zell confused. Why was he doing this? Zell didn't know, but he wouldn't let him run again, he couldn't. Zell tightened his hold, calling frantically for him to calm down.

The only reply he got was grunts from his struggling and pants from already extended breath. Seeing that he wasn't strong enough to escape physically, he compensated and used a shield to do it. He created an invisible barrier that expanded outward and preyed Zell's arms from him around him.

"Carbuncle!" Zell wasn't nearly strong enough to hold on and Carbuncle jumped free, running away with all his speed. "Stop! Comeback!"

'Zell...I'm...sorry but...' He had to get away from Zell, right _now_, before he lost it completely. He felt his conciseness slipping fast, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was sure that when he finally lost conciseness that he wouldn't regain it, so the least he could do was just to get away... for Zell's sake.

"His eyes….they were red?" Zell charged after him with out hesitation, trying to at lest keep Carbuncle in his sights. But Carbuncle was so fast... "What happened to him? What the hell was that!"

Things could only get worse after this, if what the GF said was true whatever was doing this to Carbuncle had won at that moment. Carbuncle wouldn't act this way, he _had_ to be right, something _had_ to be making him do this... something had to be.

"DAMNIT!"

---------------------------


	19. Chapter 18: Hidden within

Chapter18: Hidden with in.

Zell charged out of the out of the elevator and on to the second floor, he was just barely fast enough to catch a glimpse of Carbuncle down on the first and since the last time he saw him was near the elevator, the 2 floor was the next logic place to look. He moved with a heightened pace down the hall and into the second floor classroom, coming just in time to glance back and see Cho head out the emergency exit into the city.

"Carbuncle?" Zell called out, moving with quick steps through the neat rows and making sure to look underneath each desk. Something he'd wished he thought of doing yesterday, Carbuncle could easily stay under one of these and avoid being found.

Zell grunted in frustration after checking the last desk in the back of the room with no sign of Carbuncle. 'I lost him again...' His mind frantically raced to think of a place Carbuncle would go on the second floor, at first he couldn't think of anything, but then he remembered seeing Cho leave out of the emergency exit. "He probably went out in to Fishermen's horizon.'

Running out of the empty class room, Zell pushed his way out of unlocked emergency exit and stumbled on to the bridge connecting the garden to FH in his disoriented hurry. He nearly ran into Cho was standing in front of the door, Shadow had finally stopped just a few feet ahead of him. "Damnit, stop following me!" The wolf growled fiercely in an audibly unnerved voice.

Zell questioningly paused to watch.

"Stop running! Listen to me!" Cho shouted, he didn't even seem to notice Zell standing directly behind him. He was completely focused on Shadow who just scowled at him and began charging abruptly in the opposite direction. "Stop!" A highly motivated Cho waisting no time ran after him on the narrow bridge, his focus and determination gave his speed an edge.

"Huh?" Zell scratched his head in confusion. "What was that all about?"

Seifer and Nida came charging through the doorway behind Zell so unexpectedly it made him flinch. "Where did Cho go?" Nida announced, Zell had to admit, he moved fast to be on crutches.

Zell pointed forward across the bridge."He just ran in to the city after that wolf." he said, as soon as the two got their answer they ran past him and after Cho. "What is going on around here today?"

Nida and Seifer were both much slower then Cho, that lack of speed would make it that much harder to follow him and Shadow.

! - ! - !

Zell made to end of the bridge in to the city limits at about the same time as Seifer and Nida, which was mostly the painfully slow lift's fault, by the time they arrived there was no sign of Carbuncle, Cho or Shadow.

"Damnit, Were the hell did they go!" Seifer shouted in aggravation, he looked both ways across the railroad tracks that surrounded the city and separated the bridge from the sun panel, neither way held any trace of either of them. "How the hell do we _lose_ both of them?"

Nida leaned heavily on the crutches with his balance being fully extended, panting heavily from fatigue. "I'm slowing you down..." Nida sighed. "Your stronger and faster than me Seifer, you should go ahead, I'll catch up."

"Hn, maybe..." Seifer paused, first he peered forward as if he'd just spotted something, then glanced over at Zell. "Zell, weren't you looking for Carbuncle?"

Zell looked up at him questioningly, he did mention it sometime during the course of the day. "Yeah, why?"

"Because I see something green under those panels." Seifer pointed ahead where he'd seen seen the spot of green in the lines between the sun panels.

"What? Really?" Zell anxiously stepped closer, when he really looked he could see something green streaking under the panels near the top, it had to be Carbuncle...or at lest he hoped. Zell sighed and glanced reluctantly toward Seifer, rubbing the back of his head. "…Thank you." He said uneasily, then quickly jumped over the edge in to crimson bowl beside the bridge before Seifer could utter another word to him. He seemed kind of embarrassed.

"Yeah whatever." Seifer said discardingly, he barely paid attention to him.

"If your gonna leave me behind anyway then we're gonna have to split up, you go left, I'll go right." Nida suggested.

! - ! - !

The smooth, flat surfaces and the steep incline made Zell slide down if he wanted to or not, but with his balance he managed to turn to the side, one foot before the other and stayed upright. His head was constantly staring down, watching himself slide over the retreating green figure underneath the panel. 'It's moving...that must be him."

There was no way whatever it was didn't know he was there, the sound of rubber soles sliding against hot metal was so loud that it couldn't not be noticeable.

Finally ahead of the green form, Zell jumped in to the air and felling in-between an elongated gap that had worked it's way into the panels over time. He landed on the hard concrete under them, directly in front of exactly who he thought it was, Carbuncle.

When he saw his friend he couldn't help but draw back in surprise. "…Oh man…." He couldn't believe his eyes, though very few amounts of light came down from the surface, just passing through the small lines between each panel and lining the ground in a checkered pattern. What light there was was enough to show Carbuncle's whole body.

His eyes were glowing a deep red, and his body was a darker shade of green making it apparent that he would eventually turn black if this trend continued. " What happened to you? Why are you running from me?"

"Damnit, Stay away from me!" Carbuncle growled in an animalistic manner with fangs bared, quickly creating a barrier around himself. It wasn't a regular one, 4 mint green orbs about half Zell's size began to revolve around the small GF. This type of barrier could be used for offense and defense, more so a defensive attack.

The harshness in his voice surprised Zell, he had never heard anything remotely this cold from him even when he was mad. It didn't matter, Zell refused to back down until he got his friend back. "No! Tell me why your running from me!" He demanded firmly.

Carbuncle only grunted in response, his body tensed and he rose off of his heels as he sent one of the green orbs flying at Zell.

He didn't expect him, enough to catch him off guard. "!" It struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground and sending him sliding farther down the incline through the jungle of poles holding up the panels. Zell drove his hands on to the sloped ground behind him and slowed his body to a stop. "What are you doing?" He shouted, noting how hard he'd actually been hit was surprising considering Carbuncle's nature all of his skills revolved around protecting and defending. Feeling a bruise forming he grabbed on to one of the poles and climbed to his feet.

Carbuncle launched a second orb at Zell, it move so fast that it left him barely a second to roll to the side and avoid it.

"Stop it!" Zell demanded, running up the concrete slope towards Carbuncle in the hopes he could make it past the two remaining parts of the Barrier. The third orb launched at him mid way, but he jumped over it, his back bumping in to the panel above him from the narrow evasion. Zell rolled in mid air so that he was facing the bottom of the same panel, kicking off of the steel and speeding his decent to the ground. He strategically gained enough speed to fall under the fourth orb just as Carbuncle released it.

"What's wrong with you?" Zell sprang up from the ground and charged at Carbuncle while his defense was gone.

"Diamond Shield!"

Zell found himself running into a translucent wall that came out of nowhere. It shined and sparkled brilliantly in the patchy sunlight that made it down, a one foot thick barrier made completely out of pure, completely cut and shaved diamond. An amazing talent that wasn't just for show, this was the best physical defense he could possibly generate and the next best thing to being physically invincible. "What happened to you Carbuncle?" Zell pleaded for an answer. "Why are you acting so strangely?"

Carbuncle was silent and unmoving, as if he didn't want to say anything at first. They just stood there for what seemed like an eternity, until Carbuncle lowered his head and screamed, it wasn't clear why though. "I…I-I HATE YOU! Stay away from me!" The Diamond Shield grew and expanded outward, slamming in to Zell and forcing him backwards while it decimated the pools in it's path. If he didn't have such tight reflexes and blocked with his arms before he was hit, he would have taken a lot of damage. Though he didn't expect the rain of heavy steel panels that came falling on him from their loss of support. He was able to knock them away...

He stood speechless, now much farther away then he'd been before the barrier expanded. 'Carbuncle…really hates me?…… No he couldn't! This isn't him, it's something else inside of him…I have to save him…' He told himself, trying his best to convince himself that was all there was to it. It had to be.

Zell's pause of thinking gave Carbuncle enough time to drop the shield and jump to the surface.

"Hey wait!" But Zell wouldn't give up that easily, he grabbed a hold of the edge of one of the panels, climbing up once again in front of Carbuncle and blocking his path. "Your not going to run from me!"

! - ! - !

"Shadow stop!" Cho shouted, watching the agile wolf move easily through the mass of people walking directly in his path. Cho was having a much harder time maintaining his speed and pace in this large obstruction then the GF was, he persistently pushed and shoved his way through the pedestrians blocking him.

The number of other people lessened when the railroad tracks came to what used to be a train station next to the bridge leading to Esther. Now the only thing in Shadow's path was himself, Shadow unfortunately wasn't focusing his full attention on running and missed at step on the uneven ground, causing him to come tumbling on to the line of wooden placards and banging his head on the metal rails in a painful looking manner. He was barely focusing on moving, it was no wonder why he fell.

Cho caught up to him with in what seemed like the second he'd fallen, waisting no time knelling by his side and wrapping both of his arms Shadow's body. He knew he was taking a _big_ risk, considering that he could be stabbed to death or even impaled doing this. "Stop running!" His voice trailed off immediately after he spoke those words, worry flooded into his speech. "…Are you alright? You look like you hit your head kinda hard, that's twice today."

"What do you care?" Shadow turned away from Cho and managed to stand despite the boy's grip on him.

Cho still wouldn't let go despite the fact that he was barely hanging off of his neck… It allowed him to get a quick glimpse of Shadow's face while the wolf was turning from him... Did he see what he thought he saw? "Are you…_crying_?" Though the look was only a small glance, Cho knew he saw tears.

"I-I can't control it." Shadow's voice was shakily, something Cho didn't notice the first time, he clinching eyes shut tightly and sent a spike shooting outward from his neck.

"Uhaaa!" It just barely missed Cho's head, forcing him to let go and fall face first on the uneven ground.

Before he even realized it Seifer and Nida were behind him, lifting Cho on to his feet by whatever piece of him they could grab. By then Shadow was gone, disappearing on the only route possible, toward Esther.

"We'll never catch him now." Seifer grunted in annoyment with a small shake of his head.

"We should just let him go, it's too dangerous to keep following him. He'll try and kill us if we get close, and we can't beat him." Nida sighed defeated as he eased himself into a sitting position next to Cho, setting his crunches together no his shoulder. Cho's determination was something to be admired 'Maybe I just think to much...'

Even with his injures he still was able to get here at the same time as Seifer, it made Seifer wonder how fast he was with out a cast.

"No, he _wasn't_ trying to kill us when we got close. He was just trying to get away from us." Cho told them.

"Cho, you have to understand-"

"He was crying." Cho cut him off.

"What?"

"He was crying, I saw it when I grabbed him."

A long pause in responded to him. Nida and Seifer each gave each other looks undecipherable by Cho, speaking in silence. After that Nida and Seifer seemed to think to themselves about something while Cho brooded in his own contemptment for losing Shadow.

"…Come on." Nida sighed, taking a crutch under each arm and trying to push himself on to his feet. Seifer grabbed a hold of his waist and helped him up seeing he couldn't do it on his own. "Thanks."

"Huh?" Cho looked up at him with confusion. "You still wanna keep going?"

"He's moving toward Esther, We may be able to head him off with the Ragnarok."

! - ! - !

Zell stood firmly atop the sun panels nearer to center, the ground was even down here so he had no problem keeping his balance. Or blocking Carbuncle's path, "What happened to you? Tell me!" Zell shouted.

Carbuncle yelled in anger, feeling tears burning at his eyes and his vision bluing. An orange, sphere shaped barrier surrounded his body, it twisted and swirled at the center, extending a drill towards Zell. Then he charged forward, driving the drill towards Zell.

'He's quick.' Zell barely had time to react at such a close distance. "?" With out hesitation he dived outward to the left, just barely evading Carbuncle, though the spinning blade managed to graze his forearm and draw blood.

That's when Zell realized it, as he hit the ground on his side and he clasped his scared arm with his opposite hand. It was the undeniable truth that Carbuncle was actually trying to kill him now, none of this seemed real to Zell, his mind rejected the thought say that it couldn't be true. Until he realized that the drill was actually aimed at his head.

'He's crying…?' Zell said to himself, seeing tears falling from the falsely red eyes. 'What the...' Even more unreal to him he watched the green body grow a little darker at that moment, it was like an incoming tide that washed over him completely. What ever was happening was enough to make Carbuncle clinch his eyes shut and cry out. Though Zell couldn't tell if it was a sound of pain pain or whatever emotion he was feeling at the moment.

With out a word of warning Carbuncle turned abruptly and ran away as fast as he could, heading towards the East edge of the sun panel.

"Carbuncle stop!" Zell wasted no time going after him with every bit of speed he'd acquired over his life time, trying his best to catch up even though it was hard running up hill on a smooth surface like these panels. "Stop running and tell me what's wrong with you!"

Carbuncle couldn't help but hear him, making him pause only for a second to look back, his face showed a slightly concentrated look on the strained expression.

'Wait...I know that look, he's-!' Zell was suddenly lifted off the sun panel and shot in to the air, the cause a wide green barrier lifting him off the ground the ground like an elevator, only at a much faster rate. "Whoa!" He nearly fell from the expectedness of it, by the time he caught himself he seemed to be about 30 feet in the air. "Oh man...:" Even worse, when he looked up he could see another barrier coming down on him. 'What do I ...' he knew he had no choice but to jump before he was smashed. The drop wasn't small either, Carbuncle's power was strong enough to lift Zell's weight into the air easily so he could take him very high very fast. 'Here goes nothing.' Without another thought to make him more nervous about it then he already was, he jumped.

Zell managed to land on his feet, as soon as he came down he stumbled forward and fell, the fact that he was near the top and the panels and they were almost completely vertical from here on up didn't help. 'Damn that hurt...' He grabbed on the edge of a panel before he could slid down too far, and luckily he landed close enough to reach forward and get a tight grip on Carbuncle's body. "Why are you running away?"

"Let me go!" The small body began to struggle, squirming to slip free, but it was no use. Zell's grip was too tight. "Just leave me alone!" Carbuncle's body tensed beneath Zell's fingers, he expanded a shield from his body to pry away Zell's hand. "I hate you Damnit! Do you even know what you've done to me!" He shouted furiously, giving his shield one last boost to expand and knock Zell away.

"Carbuncle!" His body was pushed outward by the shield with enough force to send him flying, his body was knocked outward over the dish and crashed down in the center where the Mayor's house stood. 'D-Damnit...'

His head hurt so much that he could barely think, and his ears rang inexplicably, but he was able to focus enough to see Carbuncle climb to the top.

The GF stopped, taking one last, small look back at Zell before diving in to the ocean.

'C-Carbuncle...'

! - ! - !

"Zell, are you alright?"

He must have passed out, because when he opened the eyes he didn't even realized he'd closed, he saw Cho standing over him, Nida and Seifer directly behind him.

He couldn't have been out for that long..."Not really." Zell shook his head as if to dispel the small daze, then with stumbling steps he picked himself off the ground and climbed on to his feet, rubbing his head lightly. "Carbuncle is gone." He spoke with audible disappointment, more at himself for not stopping him.

"I saw." Cho sighed with a saddened tone, he'd been watching from the railroad tracks surrounding the area. "Couldn't catch him?"

"No." Zell shook his head in defeat.

"Come with us, you might be able to." Nida suggested.

"Where are you going?" Zell asked.

"After Shadow, he's heading towards Esther." Nida told him, "From where Carbuncle jumped, it looks like he's heading that way to."

"I guess..."

Zell followed the three with a discarding shrugged, the Ragnarok was docked on the far side of the mayor's house so it was clear why they came this way. Zell noticing that Seifer hadn't said anything the whole time, he looked as if he was thinking. He didn't even realize that Zell was watching him, or was too busy thinking to care.

! - ! - !

Despite his injures Nida was the one that piloted the Ragnarok, being much better then Cho even even with them.

Cho sat down under a windshield next to the edge of the control panel "What's wrong with Carbuncle?"

"I'm not sure…he said he felt empty... no, like something was hollowing him out, then he just disappeared for a day." Zell sighed, he leaned against the wall next to Cho with his arms folded tightly across his chest. "When I did find him again this morning he was crying, then he just ran away from me... What's really weird is that he's turning black and his eyes are red, it's really creepy. I think he may have been possessed by one of those monsters."

Cho shook his head, "He wasn't possessed, he seemed just like he was still Carbuncle only... angrier. When your possessed you wouldn't act like that." Someone possessed by a shadow would have no will or strong emotions present, Cho knew from experience. Carbuncle's emotions were definitely strong, and he was still conscious.

"Well _something_ happened to him, why dose he look like that?"

"Maybe something is making him act different." Nida said, he slowly leaned forward, releasing the throttle for a moment since he could only use one arm, and pressed a flipped an unknown switch on the dashboard. "He's been off ever since he went after you in Time Compression."

Time Compression?...wait a minute- "Didn't Shadow say he came here through Time Compression." Cho realized. "If he did then all of those other ones must have too."

Now things were starting to make a more sense. "When Carbuncle went into Time Compression to find me, one of those things must have gotten in him on there way there." Zell reasoned. "But if that's true, how come he's not possessed? And what about this whole week, if something was inside of him it had more then enough time to show up."

"Carbuncle is a GF of defense, Physically and Mentally. A shadow could probably never get past those defenses completely..." Nida paused, maybe that wasn't unnecessary true. "Or at lest it would take some time."

So that's what Carbuncle had meant."But it got through enough…" Zell pounded the metal wall in a burst of anger from something unknown to everyone else, if this was true then that would mean this whole thing was his fault...

"Well….I don't think all of this is the Shadow…" Nida released the throttle again to pull a small lever down half way. "Carbuncle had a lot of things he was keeping in while you were gone, and I think the Shadow was bringing that out."

Zell folded his arms again and hung his head down, "So he really hates me after all." He said low to himself. "I thought something was just saying that, dammit, of course it was him."

"Nah, I don't think it's that bad, it's probably just exaggerated." Nida told him, "I'm sure he's actually mad at you, but hate you? He couldn't, not the way he talked about you."

Cho agreed. "Yeah, if something really was doing to him what he said it was-"

"Hollowing him out?" Zell interrupted.

"Yeah, all of this would come out one way or another." Cho said. His eyes scanned over the room anxiously, taking special notice of Seifer, who still hadn't said a word this whole time.

Seifer was waiting stoically in the co-pilot seat, just in case Nida's injuries got the best of him and he ended up crashing, that may of just been exasperating thinking though. He couldn't help but feel guilty about giving Shadow a drink with that much alcohol proof , but he was too busy thinking to worry about that.


	20. Chapter 19: Hard Fights

Chapter 19: Hard Fights

"He's fast, I'll give him that." Nida few along side said, as close to the bridge as he could get while Zell looked out the opposite window for any signs of Carbuncle.

"This is kinda strange…Shadow's heading for Esther and Carbuncle's heading for Esther, think there's some connection?" Cho asked.

"It must be, if Carbuncle's being possessed then the Shadow is probably leading him toward the same place." Zell said.

"Hold on." Nida called back, veering the ship to the left to a void a quick spike from Shadow. Another spike trailed after the first, but the Ragnarok was able to avoid it by lowering underneath the bridge hovering just above the water

"Should I attack him back?" Nida asked. "Might slow him down. Or at lest distracted."

Seifer shook his head and finally spoke up. "No, that will just make things worse. Just keep following him."

'Hmm...' Nida studied his expression, easily able to tell he was still thinking. He'd never seen Seifer…so quiet and serous, and though he didn't mean this as an insult, this was the longest he'd ever seen Seifer actual think. " I'll have to fall back some or he'll tear us apart."

The ship rose above the bridge and reduced in speed, watching Shadow move with his usual agility through the train station at the end of the bridge. Shifting through the train cars and following the track in to the Great Salt Lake.

It became much harder to follow him in this naturally obstructing terrain, Nida quickly lost sight of him. Unclear if Shadow would follow the path into Esther or stay in the frozen land to avoid them. "Damn…" Nida grunted, circling the ice cap trying to find the Shadow again. "Where going to have to land, I lost him completely.

! - ! - !

Nida landed on the small area of land where the train station ended and the ice started, the only area that was flat or stable enough to hold the ship though it was a real strain to get it in the position.

"Good luck, I hope you find him." Zell said, clearly about to separate from them. He was going back to the bridge to find Carbuncle while they were heading into opposite direction

"Same to you, talk so sense into Carbuncle for me." Nida said, giving Zell a small wave before slipping past the Ragnarok in to the Frozen Salt Lake with Seifer following silently behind.

Cho waited as Nida and Seifer left, looking towards bridge attempting to gather his thoughts. Finally he decided just to ask as directly as possible …"Tell me honestly, is there a chance Carbuncle will be back to normal after this. I mean, will there be anything left of him?"

Zell folded his arms and sighed, "I'm not sure, I don't know how this works but we'll find out soon enough." He'd never thought about it, there was a good chance that the part of Carbuncle's personality and mentality destroyed by the shadow would never come back. The only thing keeping Carbuncle from being an empty shell was whatever he had repressed.

Cho dropped his head with a sigh, wondering how everything could get so badly in 7 days. He'd grown really close to Carbuncle in those 4 years Zell was gone. He wanted to help, but right now he had to go after Shadow, Zell was going to have handle this. "I'll be back as soon as I can to help…I'm sure Carbuncle will be fine, he's strong." He said, trying more so to convince himself then Zell, the boy managed to force a small smile before going after Nida and Seifer.

"I hope your right." Zell stood where the bridge became the tracks of the train station and gazed out on to the water.

Just as he expected he saw a blue light near the surface, drifting toward land at a surprisingly fast rate. 'This is it.'

"Carbuncle!" Zell shouted, watching the blue light float to the surface and revealing Carbuncle with an aura colored bubble surrounding him. It was his water shield. "Your not getting through until you talk to me."

With no other way to get through, Carbuncle jumped on to the bridge with the small question of how Zell managed to get here before him. The very last thing he wanted to do was see Zell standing in his way, he hoped desperately that he'd knocked Zell out back in FH, at lest long enough to lose him.

He couldn't control himself, he didn't even know where he was going. Something was leading him, forcing him to do what he did to Zell. 'Move! Please just get out of here.' Carbuncle shouted in his mind, hoping his junction with Zell was still holding…

No, it was completely severed, the Shadow had done an excellent job of what it set out to do. Completely isolate him, it drive him insane so it would be that much easier to gain complete control of him. It was working.

Carbuncle's body began to glow a green aura, an impish smirk coming on to his face "I'm going to enjoy this." 'No I'm not! Zell….please just run! I can't control myself!' Carbuncle pleaded in his mind, finding that his thoughts were also trying to be suitably manipulated by the shadow. Carbuncle could see it…everything was closing in on him…

"Ahhh! What's happening!" Carbuncle shouted, clinching his eyes and holding his head between his paws.

Zell looked at him a raised eyebrow, he didn't expect this... "What's wrong with you?"

Carbuncle could see everything going dark, he felt his body…his consciousness, his very being forced in to a ball and cast off in to a deep hole. He was falling... No, he couldn't be falling, he was standing on the ground... No he was falling! He was spinning too, and everything was so dark...

Carbuncle's eyes revert back to their normal blue color. "Stop it! AHHHHAH No! Help me! Someone! Anybody!" He screamed… and then it stopped... 'Huh?' That's when he realized he was hallucinating, again.

It was only a matter of time before it really happened though…

Zell ran towards Carbuncle, trying to reach him before… He was knocked off his feet when a barrier was put up in front of him. Carbuncle's eyes returned to the glowing red and he attacked, charging at Zell jumping on his chest while.

A green barrier appeared under Carbuncle, pushing down on Zell oppressively, it was suffocating him. But Zell was stronger then he looked, even with his hands pinned down against the ground he was able to push the barrier off of him. With an actual grip on it, Zell punched through the barrier, grabbing Carbuncle with one hand.

"Sorry I have to do this but--" Zell drew his other arm back and sent a strong punch in to Carbuncle. The small GF was sent flying backwards, smashing into a light pole and falling on to the rail road tracks.

"Heh." Carbuncle shook his head to dispel the hit and climbed to his feet, the glow on his body growing a little stronger.

'What is that?' He didn't know what _it_ was but Zell knew he was in for one hell of a fight now.

Carbuncle was one of the strongest GF's in existence, it wasn't because he had any actual strength. His defenses couldn't be toped, and blending with his speed made a dangerous combination. He was so dangerous because he could use his defenses to attack, and if he couldn't hit his targets, he could use defenses to trap his enemy. If he got his enemy trapped in his barriers, he would automatically do his strongest attack. Smashing an opponent from all sides and crushing them beyond recondition.

This would be the toughest fight Zell had and would ever face again, and not just physically.

! - ! - !

Cho quickly took the lead with his speed, paying no attention to Nida's warning to slow down on the ice. As a result he fell often, but quickly sprang to his feet and continued forward as if it hadn't even happen. The temperature quickly got to them, making the whole search even worse.

There were many paths but luckily only one definite road, and it had snowed recently so Shadow left behind footprints making it much easier to track him. He really must have been out of it to make a mistake like that.

Cho ran up the slippery hill leading to a cliff over looking Esther, but lost his footing on the slick ground and fell, again. "Damnit…" He growled to himself, looking ahead towards Shadow's footprints he could see that the wolf had fallen a few times also, about 5 or so.

Determined not to give up, Cho took a step back and charged at the slope. Running as fast as he could even though he missed every other step and was only a few inches from falling, but he still managed to stay on balance until he reached the top. He stumbled and fell, the boy found himself at Shadow's feet, showing that they were much closer to him then they originally thought.

"Why are you still following me!" Shadow barked, growling a warning as Cho climbed to his feet.

He shook the snow from his hair and wiped the cold powder from his face. "Because you keep running!" Cho shouted back, getting a row of spikes shooting up out of the ground in front of him for a response. Cho stumbled backwards, one of them just barely grazing his noise and forcing him to fall back to avoid the next. "!" He was caught by Seifer who was using his gun blade to climb the ice with Nida holding tightly to his shoulders because he couldn't make it up himself.

Shadow took one step back, a black liquid running off his body into the ground in preparations for his next attack. "Damnit Shadow! I'm not going to fight you." Cho said firmly, getting another of spike shooting upward out of the ground. Cho fell against the wall, escaping this time with a cut across his forehead.

"Damnit, What the hell are you doing?" Seifer lifted his gun blade but Cho pushed it back down, determined not to let any harm come to Shadow.

"We didn't try to kill you! Stop acting like this!" Cho shouted angrily, pushing himself off the wall and standing face to face with Shadow.

Shadow only growled again, the black liquid that had seeped off of him and covered the ground rose up and surrounded Cho in an imprisonment of blunt black spike like bars. It was close but left enough space in-between for Cho to move a little.

Even with the threat hanging over him, Cho didn't waver an inch, though Nida started to get nervous.

They stood silent for a few seconds, each wondering what the other would do, some to nervous to even move from fear of reaction. With so much possible of happening, no one expected the loud roar that erupted from behind them. Everyone flinched from the sudden sound, including Shadow, which made his repressed attack slip on accident on to and unsuspecting Cho.

The darkness surrounding him closed in, engulfing his whole body in a tight, suffocating squeeze. The mass of back that had taken the shape of bars spread out and engulfed him It sent a few spike's through his body, Shadow was able to stop the full force of the attack after only 3 or 4 spikes protruded into Cho. The attack was so fast there was no way he could have stopped even that from happening.

"…No... I didn't-" Shadow's voice trailed off as the darkness dispelled and Cho fell to the ground, bleeding over his clothing making it unclear were he'd actually been hit. "I didn't mean too-" Though Shadow thought that they had tried to kill him, he never meant to harm Cho, it was why none of his other attacks hit.

Cho looked towards Shadow with a shocked expression, but his look immediately softened when he saw how…surprised... and regretful Shadow at what he'd just done, he looked like he couldn't even believe what he just did. Cho wrapped his arms around his torso tightly and cringed in pain. 'It was... it was an accident... he didn't mean to...' One that he'd be extremely mad about later.

Seifer and Nida ran to his side, Nida immediately dropped to his knees (something extremely hard with a broken leg.) lifting up Cho's shirt to find the wounds.

"Cho, are you alright?" He asked worriedly, using his shirt sleeve to wipe away enough blood to see where he'd been hit. "Come on Cho, speak to me!" one through the stomach, two through his chest, both away from the heart, and a final on in his side.

Cho squinted his eyes and clasped a hand over the two holes in his chest. "It was…an accident…"

Shadow began to back up with wide eyes and more tears that he couldn't control.

Even with his amazing reflexes and awareness, he was so out of it that he fell off the edge of the cliff. Tumbling down towards the base of the hollow lake at the bottom.

"What do you mean accident?" Seifer asked.

"I mean, that shadow didn't mean to do it. You could tell by looking at his face that he screwed up." Cho bit down on his bottom lip and pressed his hand even harder against his chest to relinquish the pain.

Nida sighed, standing up with less pain now that his body was getting use to the sudden movements again. He picked up his fallen crutches along the wall and slid them under his arms. "Stay with Cho, and keep some pressure on those wounds. I'll be right back." Nida called back, walking with limping steps towards the edge of the cliff.

"Nida?" Cho had to pause to keep from crying out. "Y-You can't go after him... at lest not in your shape."

"I'll be alright, just wait for me."


	21. Chapter 20: Reasonable doubt

Chapter 20: Reasonable doubt

Zell pulled his fist back and sent a swift punch into the shield, followed by another one quick enough that it only appeared as a blur 'Damn!' Zell pulled his hands back and rubbed them soothingly, he'd only managed to hurt himself. With no will to give up, Zell began to throw a furry of quick and hard punches at the wall separating him and Carbuncle.

Carbuncle pushed the shield outward, knocking it in to Zell and making his body slide backwards while he struggled to block and keep his balance. Carbuncle had an easy chance to catch him off guard. The small GF ran at him full speed, dropping the barrier so that he could get past and forming another green barrier around his own body. With a growl seemingly much fiercer then anything that could come from a body that small, he dived forward and ramming him in the stomach, Zell stumble back even farther from the surprisingly painful blow.

Zell quickly caught Carbuncle with both hands before he could fall to the ground, and began squeezing with both hands until the barrier shattered beneath his formidable grip he reached Carbuncle's body. "I'm sorry about this." Zell drew his arm back, about to strike him when Carbuncle created an invisible wall between them just before his hand connected.

"Back off!" Carbuncle pushed it outward he was able to pry Zell's grip off and free himself.

Carbuncle jumped a few steps back and thrust the invisible wall forward offensively at Zell, but Zell was fast and reflexive enough to sense it coming and break through it with a single swift kick. Zell stepped forward and punch downward at Carbuncle, but he wasn't fast enough to hit before Carbuncle evaded to the side, all his fist hit was the ground, leaving a large split in the concrete. 'He's too fast….He's just messing with me.'

Just what Zell thought was confirmed when he felt himself hit another diamond shield with a smirking Carbuncle behind him. Once again he pounded downward futilely against the wall, 'If I know Carbuncle...' Zell continued to pound away at the shield, but this time he studied the GF's face looking on the other side. He was waiting for it, just one little thing…'There!' And he saw it, a small twitch in Carbuncle's expression that came right before he sent the shield expending outward in an attack.

With the right timing Zell ran up the wall just as it expanded away from the GF, finding himself standing awkwardly on it being held up by the centripetal force created. 'If I can just make it to the top then-'

Seeing what was happening, Carbuncle dispelled the barrier sending Zell flying through the air. "That's not gonna work you idiot!"

Zell flipped himself around, landing sideways a light pole and kicked off of it in one fluid motion. He soared at Carbuncle before the GF could comprehend what the human was doing, driving his fist into Carbuncle's chest with the extra force. "That's not was I was doing!"

He knew Carbuncle well.

'!' Carbuncle's body was thrown into the railing guarding the edge of the bridge from the ocean, leaving a large imprint where he'd hit. 'Damn he's strong...' With a loud growl he shook off the blow and jumped to his feet. "Your gonna pay for that!"

'Huh?' Zell was surprised to find himself not tumbling and sprawling painfully to a stop on the ground from his last attack, which he was expecting to do. In fact it was exactly the opposite. Two strong arms had caught him and he was being held a foot above the railroad tracks.

"Zell? What's going on?" The timing couldn't be better.

"Bahamut! Your back?" Zell slipped out of his grip and climbed on to his feet, looking back at the dragon floating just above the ground with out stretched wings. His back looked fine, and after only 3 days, that was amazing. But he didn't have time to talk. "We have a serious problem with Carbuncle, a shadow is controlling him."

"What?" Bahamut looked at with evident surprise, Carbuncle was only looking over him, trying to size him up before attacking. "…I-I understand." Bahamut had known something was wrong, but he never imagined it was that serous. He really started to wonder what it had been like when he was gone. 'Carbuncle...'

Bahamut landed protectively in front of the the boy, he gently pushed Zell back, explaining it to him before he had enough time to object.

"You can't fight him, your not strong enough to get through he defenses."

Zell shook his head negatively, "No way! I can't sit around while my two best friends fight each other." Flashes of Bahamut's fight with Tiamat ran through his mind when he thought about this, only this situation was much, much worse.

He didn't want to do this just as much as Zell didn't, but he wouldn't let Zell get hurt unnecessarily. "You have to…" He spoke in a deathly serious tone, one that showed his own reluctance. "I don't even know if _I'm_ strong enough." Bahamut knew Carbuncle would eventually put up his best defense, when that happened Bahamut wasn't sure if he'd be able to stop him. "Please Zell, just let me handle it."

Zell snorted "No! If we do it together then-"

"That doesn't necessarily mean we'll have a better chance." Bahamut said firmly. "Please... just let me handle it."

There was a tense pause between them as Zell stared angrily at Bahamut, he didn't want to... he couldn't..."Damnit." Finally Zell gave nod of angry reluctance and moved back a few feet.

"Bahamut, your back eh? It doesn't matter you can die with him!" Carbuncle growled, he charged forward head strong at the dragon. An orange shield hovered in front of him as he tried to ram Bahamut with it, but with a gentle flap of his wings he was able to fly above the attack.

"You don't mean that." The beat of his wings increased immediately after he'd evaded, blowing a wall of wind at Carbuncle who was still trying to stop and turn around. "I can tell."

"Don't tell me what I mean!" The small body was picked up off the ground, swept up in the strong current and riped at by sharp surges with in the. Carbuncle grunted in pain, forcing an apposing wall of wind to surround his body with a Wind Shield.

This was Bahamut's chance, he knew the key to fighting Carbuncle was good reactions, while he's using one type of shield, use another type of attack.

"I'm sorry about this." Bahamut abruptly stopped all movement of his wings, falling to the ground and lifting both of his hand towards the other GF, "Flare!" sending a strong explosion of powerful energy rushing over Carbuncle's body, the red haze that cut thorough the wind shield with it's shock wave alone, opening him up to the spell.

A slightly more damaged Carbuncle emerged from the attack with a shell spell already cast, using the smoke as cover to charge at Bahamut before the dragon could be alerted of his presence. Carbuncle knew Bahamut's weakness was his sight, so he tried to do everything he could with out him seeing while he had the chance.

An orange energy shield hovered over his body, glowing brighter as Carbuncle dived towards Bahamut, striking him in the stomach with a burst of the energy and kicking off his chest jumping directly into his chin with an uppercut. Bahamut was knocked back with surprising force realizing Carbuncle launched the shield at him when he attacked, created another one then launched it with his second blow.

He had to admit, Carbuncle's rate of creating defenses was amazingly fast.

"Your done Bahamut!" Carbuncle shouted in a rage, creating an invisible shield under Bahamut that lifted him into the air with incredible speed. Bahamut was instantly pressed down to the unseen barrier by the sudden rush of G-force. Knowing Carbuncle he figured another shield was coming down to smash him from above so he had to move fast. Bahamut rolled over on to his stomach and stayed down low, climbing on to all fours then springing off the barrier.

"You have to fight this, don't let this thing control you." He used his wings to speed his decent to a dizzying pace, he was to slow though to reach his target in time an could only watch as Carbuncle put up a diamond shield around himself.

"Fight what Bahamut? Your so full of it!"

It was an intimidating defense and trying to use a fall to power his attack could easily backfire. He knew the risks of this method thought, and it only drove Bahamut to flap his wings harder, making his body nothing more then a blur as it slammed into the sparkling barrier.

Bahamut managed to break through 7 inches of it, sending chucks of diamonds spraying in to the air as debris, but got a lot of recoil damage to his arm from the failed attempt. 'D-Damnit!' It was painful, very painful. "Carbuncle!"

"I'm sick of both of you!" Carbuncle growled, a highly concentrated look came on to his face while he created an orb barrier around the Diamond Shield. 15 green orbs just smaller then Bahamut's torso appeared, revolving around the shield like satellites to a planet. Carbuncle's attacks were getting stronger, so Bahamut would have to do the same.

He couldn't help thinking that using big defenses like this must have been hell on his stamina.

Bahamut flew backwards away from the orbs, holding his visibly damaged left arm. The dark blue appendage had a light tent of red to it from some obvious internal bleeding caused by his failed attack.

"What's wrong, is the big bad dragon hurt?" Carbuncle's whole body tensed, taking full control of the orbs and lunching them all at Bahamut.

Spreading his wings wide, Bahamut flew to the left to avoid one, letting himself drop a few feet to avoid another two that passed over his head in green streaks. An orb blindsided him, striking him in the side of the head and knocking him dizzily to the left.

The next orb rammed into his chest and pushed him backwards, taking the full force of the blow Bahamut lifted his arms and blocked the one following. Then thrust both fist forward and punched through two more, "!" Immediately realizing his mistake when he felt the throbbing pain in his injured left arm. He bit back the pain with a grunt and dived backwards, spreading his wings to propel himself towards the bridge.

A shock wave of air cascaded outward across the tracks when Bahamut passed confusingly over bridge towards the surround water. Using his natural agility to perform a flawless 90 degree turn to the left and fly along the surface of the ocean.

"It's not going to work Bahamut!" Carbuncle shouted, creating a blank shield under the diamond. It was a misty white barrier that blocked non-elemental attacks that weren't physical or spells.

Bahamut only growled in response, taking in a deep breath and building energy in his mouth. Silver light glowed from a Mega Flare building power, being sure to take in just a little more energy then usual. If he could fire a Gigaflare then he could easily enhance his Megaflare.

A loud roar erupted in the air as Bahamut fired the first of the smaller shots while he flew beneath the bridge, a small beam smashed through the concrete and passed through the diamond shield but was stopped by the blank one.

The rest came in rapid succession, another and another tore through the bridge until a 300 foot hole spanned directly under Carbuncle. The blank shield had seemed to survive. Bahamut let out another earthshaking roar as he unleashed the massive silver beam of the Mega flare, it met resistance from the blank shield but broke through almost effortlessly. The next thing Carbuncle knew he was completely engulfed in the blast.

The small GF screamed loudly in pain, his body was thrown across the gap on the side opposite of Zell. He never expected Bahamut to actually break through his non-element shield, he started thinking about his next strategy while he made his way shakily to his feet. 'Damn he hits hard.' He looked over his smoldering body with his hiss of pain, he couldn't take another one of those.

A small grunt escaped his mouth from the haste he was forced to use in casting a reflect spell on himself, bouncing a Thundaga spell back on to Bahamut.

A pillar of lighting came streaming from the calm clouds, striking Bahamut through the hole in the bridge. The dragon decreased the damage by wrapping his wings around himself and blocking, casting another spell with the same speed. "Blizzards." Bahamut flapped his wings vigorously, surrounding Carbuncle in a wall off wind from all sides.

The wind picked up the ice spell turning it into an actual blizzard, only instead of heavy snow jagged shards of ice were thrown towards Carbuncle.

The smaller GF had expected the wind and already had a wind shield in place, but to his surprise wasn't ready for the ice that came with it. '!' He was pummeled from the super powered spell, emerging half frozen with a host of cuts over his body. "Damn you..."

The ever present green glow on his body started to shine brighter, the light seemed to a measure of his strength that increased the more damage he took. It was almost like a limit break meter that Bahamut watched carefully.

"Diamond Shield!" Carbuncle shouted, renewing the glimmering barrier and unfortunately making it 2 feet thick and with decades of practice he was able to make it completely invisible by pouring more power into it. Carbuncle ran at towards Bahamut, intercepting him just as he rose up from the gap. The smaller body fearlessly dived over the gap with a blue shield hovering a few inches in front of his torso.

That blue shield started to take form, shifting into a spinning drill that struck Bahamut in the chest. Carbuncle created a floor for himself as soon as he made contact, digging into Bahamut's chest as best he could before the dragon was able to throw a punch at him with his right hand. But that's where the problem began, a usually lethal blow only struck the invisible the Diamond Shield.

Seeing this, Bahamut tried to move backwards and out of the attack. "Your not getting away from me that easy!" Unfortunately Carbuncle had created a second Diamond shield behind him preventing any other movement, he was pinned in. Bahamut had to give him some credit, he was good.

Blood started to flow from the point of Carbuncle's drill, finally piercing Bahamut's armored torso and earning a flinch and a growl from the dragon. He quickly reached his limit break,

"Impulse!"

A rush of dark blue energy expanded outward from his body in all directions, sweeping Carbuncle away in it's wake and managing to take, unintentionally, a little more of the bridge surrounding him in the explosion like blast. Instead of continuing to use that energy to attack, he used it to increase his strength and started trashing at the two shields pining with his tail.

His tail was easily the strongest part of his body, it could lift more then both of his arms combined. With one of his arms out of commission Bahamut had no choice but to use his best weapon against Carbuncle. He was reluctant to do so at first with the desire to take it easy on him, but Carbuncle's last attack had caused way to much damage for him not to.

He was even able to get through the Diamond Shield with it, plus some help from his limit break.

Carbuncle stumbled to his feet, a little disorientated from Bahamut's surprise attack.

He was starting to realize…now, it was the shadow manipulating him that started to realize something Carbuncle already knew. An angry dragon was not to be messed with, especially the king of dragons himself. Bahamut had obviously been holding back, but he was starting to get frustrated so Carbuncle had to take his defenses to the next level.

Which raised the question, what's higher then the best?

"Why wont you die already!" The green aura around Carbuncle began to pulse rapidly like a heart beat…what that meant was unclear to Bahamut but he was on guard anyway.

"..." Bahamut soared towards Carbuncle, faking as if he was about to throw a punch but at the last second he flipped backwards at the last second before Carbuncle could put up another Diamond shield. He slammed his Tail into Carbuncle in a fierce uppercut, sending his small body flying into the air painfully.

It seemed like Bahamut was already above him, the dragon moved quick, turning his whole body and striking him with his tail again. Before he could even cry out he was knocking back down into the ground with enough force to leave a crater when he landed.

No, Angry dragons should never be messed with.

Carbuncle felt as if he would pass out right there from 2 hits. The dark tent surround his body began to separate and lift off him in a fading possession, revealing the Shadow that possessed him. It seemed as if he'd finally be free of it, that Bahamut beat it out of him…But it wasn't finished yet, it went back into Carbuncle with a stronger hold then before.

His body became completely black, his red eyes had a strange illumination to them, the only thing that remained was the pulsing green glow. "I... I'm not done... It's not over!"

What was better then the best? Absolute.

"Invincible!" Carbuncle roared with the realization of his limit break, a blinding green light radiated from him in a flash that engulf everything. It was just that, only a flash lasting a half second at the most, but the change only took that long. One of Carbuncle's limit break was a black barrier, an invulnerable defense which made him quite possibly the best GF because nothing could touch him.

"You Bastard, everything was fine until you... You took him away from me. I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" He wasn't done yet though, he was able to use his second Limit break simply because he was just that angry. "Complete Compression."

Bahamut was suddenly surrounded in an invisible force that pushed down on him from all sides, trying to force into a ball. "What!" The dragon looked around confusedly with eyes wide, wincing violently when he felt the pressure on his injured arm. 'What is he doing!" Bahamut pushed outward against the force but it continued to push down him, the more he fought against it, the harder it pushed back.

He was forced to use all of his strength to keep himself being compressed into a ball and smashed to pieces, unless Carbuncle's attack gave up there was no way Bahamut would be able to get out of this one. '!' With a strained roar, Bahamut fired the crimson beam of Mega flare at Carbuncle. It erupted into a powerful explosion that shook the whole bridge, blowing away just about everything else, but it wasn't powerful enough to leave a single scratch on the barrier.

"Bahamut!" Zell stranded idly at bay on the other side of the bridge's constantly growing gap, he was being force farther and farther away from the fight.

"Zell, stay back it's too dangerous!" Bahamut shouted.

"NO! I can't keep standing around. Your in trouble and-"

It came with out warning, something so unexpected that it stopped both of them in their tracks. "EEegghhhh!" Carbuncle shouted in pain behind the shield, shaking his head violently just short of thrashing. It came so suddenly that it made Zell finch.

"Carbuncle..." The golden aura of limit break washed over his body like a volcano had erupted beneath him, "The hell with this!" Zell moved back a few feet with a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." Zell shook any apprehension out of his head and ran for the hole separating him from the fight.

"Zell! Stop, you'll never--" Bahamut realized that his cries were in vain when he saw Zell leap fearlessly over the gap. He looking in amazement as the boy flew an incredible. In human distance, closer….closer.

"Damnit!" Zell, falling just short, reached out and grabbed the edge of the other side of the bridge, holding on to a large metal wire that was protruding from the broken concrete.

Zell grunted as he pulled himself up, as soon as he got to his feet he charged head strong toward Carbuncle. With his arm drawn back he punched the shield as hard as he could, throwing a barrage of punches and kicks with as much strength he could draw up. No effect.

"You were always stupid like that!" Carbuncle shouted between heavy pants. "You can't get through!"

Zell yelled in frustration with a blue aura elevating over his body from below, it was like watching a raging storm over the ocean. "Damnit!"

That blue energy stopped coming abruptly, changing into a form that rose like a strong current of air from under him. Flames ignited briefly on his shoulders in growing from his Burning Rave limit, extinguishing only when the energy was averted.

Zell drew his left arm back, slamming it into the ground hard enough to start an earthquake.

A large split drove through the ground towards Carbuncle's barrier, the tip of the energy that lay beneath was visible at the head of fissure, slicing through the concrete like an on coming shark om the ocean. It could be seen connecting with the black wall, erupting into a strong blast that rushed over the shield with an outburst of white flames.

The attack managed to sever the part of the bridge Zell was standing on. It shook violently, tipping backwards and diving toward the water. '!' "No!" Another blue aura rushed over Zell as he struggled to keep himself from falling back with the receding platform that used to be connected, with one final push, Zell used My Final heaven.

He ran up the falling island of land mass, moving past Carbuncle's barrier and disappearing over the horizon with surreal speed, it was like watching a dream in motion, something that completely defied reality.

Bahamut looked around, more or less confused since he'd never seen this Limit Break before. 'Where is he?' Everything was deathly silent, except for the sound of heavy breathing from Carbuncle who was feverously working to increases his shield's power in a hurry. "Huh?" Was Zell's attack really that powerful?

...A blinding light radiated from the opposite side of the horizon "CARBUNCLE!" Zell's voice rang over the area as the light came in to view. He was rushing towards them at a greater speed then when he started, a white light illuminating from his fist that made his body little more then an outline against it.

"GO TO HELL!" Carbuncle shouted, the invincible barrier flared, creating another one on top of the original. That was it, he was tapped out, he couldn't do anything else but faltered in exhaustion.

Zell dived over the gap, with in the blink of an eye he slamming into the barrier with full force and unleashed the stored energy in a vociferous explosion. Some how through the deafening noise one distinct sound could be heard, the sound of something shattering.

"Whoa!" Zell found himself suddenly falling forward, crashing to the ground in a fall hard enough to draw blood and bruise every place that made contact. In fact he felt the sticky liquid running down his forehead in large volumes "…"

Bahamut fell out of the hold Carbuncle had on him since the GF could no longer fight against his resistance, he unable to believe what he saw below. "He…did it?…But how!"

Bahamut descended down below to the bridge in a hurry, with out hesitation he knelt beside the boy. "Zell..." He wrapped his arms and Zell who lay face down on the ground much weaker now.

Carbuncle lay weakly before them him, hardily strong enough to even think. He roared the roar of the demonic wolf inside of him…he didn't even use words now. It was too late, he was completely gone now...

"Bahamut…I think I know how to beat him…" Zell said solemnly. He stumbled on to his feet with Bahamut's support, he couldn't stand on his own anymore.

"Huh?"

"I remember him telling me…well, he didn't _tell me_ exactly."

_! - ! - !_

"_Tell me." Zell said, scratching behind his ear._

_Carbuncle squirmed and made a soft almost cooing sound. "No…."_

"_Tell me."_

_It was becoming harder and harder for him not to give in. "No…."_

"_Please?" Zell said in his most pleading voice._

_How could he possibly resist that? "If I tell you will you stop doing this?" clearly indicating the scratching behind the ear._

"_Yes."_

"_Then I wont tell you…, ok, I'll give you a hint, I hate sleeping to long and waking up stiff. In fact, I think I need a message right now... Please?" Carbuncle looked up at him with big blue eyes and the cutest face he could manage._

_Zell laughed, "Why not." _

_! - ! - !_

"I can't believe I didn't realize what he was talking about until now. His weakness is Break, he can be petrified." Zell told him.

No one would ever guess that considering Break wasn't the most used spell in the world and Carbuncle had a shield for everything else. Though, no one had seen Carbuncle use a beak spell.

"Well…Let's do it." Bahamut junctioned himself to Zell with out another thought.

Bahamut's strength filled him, allowing him to keep standing, to keep moving. 'Thanks.' Zell slowly made his way over the weak Carbuncle, limping heavily. "Triple."

Carbuncle growled at him, the green glow forming again, charging another Limit Break.

"I'm sorry I have to do this…Break!" Zell lifted his hand toward Carbuncle, watching a wall of gray rock engulf the green GF and harden for a few seconds before shattering.

It failed.

The second wall surrounded the GF and hardened…

it failed.

The third wall surrounded the GF and hardened….it failed.

The green glow around Carbuncle's body began pulsing.

'I can't give up...' "I wont let this thing take you! Break!" With a loud yell another wall of rock surrounded Carbuncle and hardened…

it failed.

"Damnit! I won't let it!" The second wall surrounded Carbuncle and hardened…it was effective.

When the spell's dust cleared Carbuncle lay in a case of rock, a statue.

With a sigh, Bahamut unjunctioned himself, waiting standing by side by Zell. He had to catch him to keep him standing.

"It worked." Bahamut sighed.

"I don't get it, that Shadow should be gone already." Zell sighed, he was losing hope fast. Maybe the shadow finally won...

Maybe.

Bahamut looked at the petrified Carbuncle and then at Zell, "There... maybe a way, if there's anything left of Carbuncle I know a way we can get him back now that he can't fight us."

Zell immediately hugged Bahamut, that lost grimmer of hope returning. "How!"

"We Junction, I junction to you then we both junction to Carbuncle."

"Bahamut you're a genius!"


	22. Chapter 21: Never too busy Finale

Chapter 21: Never too Busy Finale

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**_Never too Busy_**by **_Kenny Lattimore_**

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! - !- !

Nida slid easily down the frozen hill, grabbing on to anything he could to slow his decent before his fall grew to fast. His crutches helped, he used them skillfully to guide himself away from obstructions, it wasn't at all difficult for him, except for the fact he was freezing cold. But it was clear that Cho wouldn't leave this place unless he convinced Shadow that they weren't trying to kill him so if Nida could get to Shadow and get this whole thing over with now, Cho wouldn't injure himself more by attempting to peruse Shadow farther.

'Damn Cho, why are you so persistent? Sometimes it's just not good for you.'

He was doing this alone because that look he saw on Shadow's face, he'd regretted what he did to Cho. Meaning he really _didn't_ want to kill them, all of his attacks were just to keep them at bay, which is why they were able to evade them all. If he was right about this then he'd be fine, if he wasn't…Well...uh...hmm...He had a... good life, the later years of it at lest.

_**Girl when we first started we were spending all our time together in love  
Now we're growning on and you're afraid of losing me, don't be **_

Crazy, spontaneous things weren't usually in Nida's personality, it was Cho's area. He was the safe type, the person who usually stopped Cho from doing those crazy spontaneous things which usual would end in personal harm, theft or property damage. Though this action was crazy it wasn't completely spontaneous, he went alone because if he stayed behind with Cho there was no way he'd be able to protect Cho from fiends. And it was too dangerous for Cho to try and make it down this cliff if Seifer had came with him

Nida held on to a protruding icicle, easing himself to the bottom of the frozen lake bed. It was littered with large bones scatted around, giving an eerie, grave yard feeling. A head he could see shadow with his back turned, stalled, apparently tired from all of the running he was doing. Running through the Garden, through FH, all the way to the continent of Esther and through this frozen region. It was amazing he'd gotten this far without stopping, plus when he'd fallen down this cliff it had to be painful even for him.

_**I've got a heart full of love even though I might not show it  
Girl it's you I dream of and just so you know it **_

Shadow didn't seem to notice him, or just didn't care. "Shadow!" Nida called out to him as he shifted the crutches under his arms comfortably, watching the wolf turn around and growl at him with bared fangs. "Stop it! I'm not trying to hurt you. Someone like y_ou_ should realize that by now."

"It's not hurting me you should be worried about." Shadow spoke with pants, he was more fatigued then it appeared at first glance. His stance was slightly limped from some injury he'd sustained in his fall, he was also bleeding from someplace on his side hidden by his fur. It was a blackish liquid instead of a normal red.

Shadow seemed to have paused for the moment, Nida was able to finally talk to him."Why do you think we tried to poison you?"

Shadow snorted, "I woke up with all of signs of it, who else could have done it if not you?"

"How should I know? There are a million other things that could have caused it."

"Name one."

Nida thought about it, naming the first things that came to mind, saying 'Maybe something you ate' sounded even more like they tried to poison him so he had to think of something else. "I... I don't know, but why would we try to kill you?"

_**You have my attention, anything you need at all   
I'll be there when you call me **_

"You killed all of the others that look like me, why not me also?" Shadow asked bitterly. "Am I not the same threat to you they are?"

"I'm not sure why Cho brought you back with him." Nida managed to keep his voice as calm and normal as he could, though unable to hide the chill that shook through him. A frozen, snow saturated wind blew across the lake bed, sweeping Nida's hair to the side already filled with snow. "All I know is that you helped me."

Shadow became solemn, delaying a response. "…"

"I was about to drown when the Ragnarok exploded, but you helped Cho save me. If you did that, the why would I try to kill you?"

"The way you humans look at me, you see me as only a common monster that needs to be exterminated. Yet no one is strong enough to do it themselves, not you, not Cho, not Seifer."

Nida sighed, this wasn't going to be easy. "So that's why you think we're trying to kill you, because other people see you as a threat? In this world you'll always be seen differently, no matter where you go, or what you do, you'll just have to get use to it…. You have strong feelings for Seifer right?"

Shadow was reluctant on the subjected, he didn't understand any of it himself. "…How--"

Nida always was observant. "It doesn't matter how I know." He moved closer, taking careful steps on the icy ground with his crutches. "Let me tell you something about Seifer, everyone sees him differently also because of what he did. For whatever reason, Seifer helped a sorceress from the future that was trying to compress all of time and existence so she could control everything. Seifer knew what she was doing and helped her any way, the Sorceress failed and died but Seifer is still here.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

People still think of him as a threat because of what he did, and people will probably never see him otherwise."

"…"

"I know you've done things, with out a doubt you've killed people, humans in particular. I might be making things worse by saying this but why _wouldn't_ they looked at you like the way they do? "

"So if you seem me as a threat, why would you deny trying to get rid of me?"

And this is what Nida was trying to make him understand all along. "We don't think you're a threat, and no offense here but the only other people you've met are people from Fishermen's Horizon. They think _anyone_ who's fought before is a threat, they give all of us that look because they don't like SeeDs."

Shadow growled offensively, growing angry again. "That doesn't change the fact that you tried to kill me, you betrayed me."

Nida shook his head discerning, "You said that where you come from betrayal was common and that our betrayal doesn't surprise you. If it doesn't then why are you acting this way at all?"

_**If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

Shadow roared, shooting spikes from below him, up through the ground beneath Nida. With a surprised gasp he was forced to stumble back out of the way barely managing to keep his balance. "Stop following me or I _will_ kill you."

Nida ignored his threat, he didn't come down here just to give up. "I'm sure you've experience betrayal yourself, and if you had as much power as you say you did then you must be able to recognize when someone would do it too you…Why not this time? You said you should have expected this, but you didn't. It's because you knew we weren't trying to kill you!" Nida shouted. "And we're still not!"

"Don't lie to me!" Shadow roared loud, so fiercely that the ground quaked in it's wake.

Nida was silent for a moment, staring at him before speaking. "Why are you still fighting me, you trusted us before, why not now."

"….It's because of what you did to me…" Shadow dropped his head and narrowed his eyes angrily, angry at himself, angry at them. "All of these things began happening to me that never happened before when I met all of you. I never felt like this before, I don't know what you did but you took advantage of it and tried to kill me while I was still confused about it."

"…" Nida wasn't sure what he meant by that...

_**We used to dream that one day we'd have everything we want  
But now that things are movin', I hope that we don't move apart **_

"If you follow me, I'll kill you." Shadow turned and began walking away.

"We didn't poison you, your just too afraid to let down your guard after coming from where ever you came from. We're not like who they were you dealt with in the past, we don't want you dead or want to get what ever power you held. But your just scared to believe it because you think the moment you relax we'll try to."

_**You still have my heart  
I've got so much to do, but girl it doesn't matter **_

Shadow growled, tensing as if he was about to pounce. "You did try to!" He yelled, sending more spikes shooting rapidly up from the ground at Nida.

He jumped back, getting a little pain from his injured leg on landing. '!'

The ground began shaking slightly when Shadow roared again but Nida didn't move an inch, he wasn't scared. "Or maybe your just to afraid to let go of your pride and accept the fact that you like us." the only response he got was another roar, right before the ice under him suddenly fractured. A huge split ran through the ice in front of him.

Nida fell backwards, landing painfully at the edge of the split separating him from shadow. 'Huh?' To his surprise there was water at the bottom of the lake, only it was frozen over by a thick sheet of ice. It didn't help him at all.

Nida grabbed on to the cliff wall and pulled himself on to his feet, but by the time he did that he could see Shadow running in the opposite direction. 'Damnit...'

"Are you ok?"

_**You still have my heart  
I've got so much to do, but girl it doesn't matter **_

Nida looked up when he heard the familiar voice, he wasn't expecting to see Seifer climbing down with Cho on his back, the boy's arms wrapped around Seifer's neck in a very tight, almost strangling grip. "I'm fine, but Shadow's really pissed."

Seifer jumped down, tensing when he heard the grimacing moan when he did. He pulled Seifer off of his back and gently laid Cho down next to Nida against the snowy wall. "You made things worse huh?" Seifer said expectantly.

"No, I made things better." Nida still knew exactly what he was doing, and Shadow (as complexly moody as he was) could easily be read by him. "All he needs is for one of you to talk to him, if will sound better coming from one of you two."He was clearly indicating Cho and Seifer.

If it came down to it, then the chose was simple, Seifer elected himself. Besides, Cho was half out of it and was barely coherent, Seifer didn't want to even give him the chance. "I'll go, maybe I can knock some sense in to him." Seifer smirked, drawing his gun blade off of his waist and resting it over his shoulder.

"Don't screw up Seifer." Cho told him, the normal playful hostility was back in his voice that he had when he usually talked to Seifer, though lightly dazed.

_**But when it comes down to you I can't think of nothing better  
Every time I'm stressin', I find that it's a blessin' to **_

"You'd like to see me screw up wouldn't you." Seifer turned around and threw back a careless wave before jumping over the large, water filled fissure and going after Shadow. "Are you going to be alright Nida?" Seifer sounded as if he didn't want to be bothered with everything.

Nida was surprised at the show of concern. "Just bring Shadow back, I'd hate to leave things like this."

"Right."

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_**To be hearin' from you **_

Zell looked around his new location, being surrounded by nothing, literally nothing, but a void similar to the one that lead to Omega Weapon in Ultimecia's castle. He could fell the pull of it from the source, it was in front of him a distance off. Everything else was just a dull white light, the complete weightlessness made it seem like being in space. "So this is what it's like to be junctioned."

"Not usually." Bahamut flew down just above him and came to a stop directly beside him. "Junctions aren't usually this strong or this easy to do, if we Junctioned anymore of ourselves we'll have the same body...it's just odd that it was so easy to get this deep, there was no mental defense or resistance at all."

Zell looked up at him questioningly, this seemed unusual. "How do you know so much about Junctions if I'm the first person you've junctioned with?"

"Carbuncle and I junction to you, it's on a much smaller scale, only enough to talk to you and get a sense of what's in your mind." Bahamut explained to him.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy  
**_

"Well we're getting a hell of a lot more then a _sense_ of what's in Carbuncle's head. When he said something was hollowing him out I had no idea it would be like... _this_." Zell sounded horrified what he saw, it was just so... empty. "I can't even see if anything's left of him…we may be ...we maybe too late."

"We can't give up now, we've come too far and we didn't do it just to get here and leave Carbuncle." Bahamut said determinedly, spreading his wings out to full length. He was not willing to give this up, Carbuncle was his friend too. Bahamut knelt down in front of him, finding it hard to do anything in this weightless environment.

Empty, no forwards or backwards, no up or down. And with nothing behind, their was no way to tell which way was forward, this place was aimless with nothing to hold it down, no gravity. No path, no roots, not even a sense of direction. All there was was a gaping void, the only forwards or backwards, the only up or down, the only roots, the only gravity.

"Your right." Zell could easily tell what Bahamut wanted him to do, so he climbed on to Bahamut's back and wrapped his arms around the dragon's neck. "Let's go!"

_**If you're feeling alone, pick up the phone and call me, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

With a small flap of his wings Bahamut lifted in to the air, more accurately a higher plane. and soared toward the center of the dark void. His flight speed was so fast that it almost peeled Zell off of him.

The distance was much longer the it looked, a track strait to a black hole that pulled everything in. It took a minute to get to their destination, it was faster because of the pull, but it was worth it. When Carbuncle said he felt like he was slipping deeper into himself, it was literally happening. Carbuncle's whole conciseness was trapped inside his mind, and they could see him being pulled in to it.

_**Whenever you need me **_

"Carbuncle!" Zell tapped Bahamut on the shoulder to give some warning before he jumped off of the dragon's back and dived head first towards the center of the void. He could see it, there was a green ball that was slowly being pulled deeper... and deeper inside.

Carbuncle had actually been forced in to a ball and was about to be pulled in to the darkness just as he had hallucinated before.

"I got you, don't worry!" Zell wrapped his arms grabbed Carbuncle and began moving backwards in the only motion he could think about doing, trying to swim against the strong suction, but it seemed in vain because the black whole they was being pulling him in was too strong to fight against. Zell looked up. "Bahamut! What is this thing!"

Bahamut was flying backwards to avoid being pulled in himself, it was hard, epically since he was still so injured after the fight. "It must be the Shadow. Hold on I'll try to get rid of it." Bahamut let himself with a moderate pace, cradling his pained left arm and he inhaled deeply. Energy formed in his mouth from a charging a Mega flare, he spewed the excess energy fourth in the several smaller blast in to the void, all pulled with no response.

'Damnit...I won't let this thing do this!' He allowed himself to be pulled in faster, just as soon as he'd passed Zell he fired the silver beam of the Mega Flare in to the black hole. The chrome beam was engulfed completely, disappearing in the void and all traces of it's light with it….

After that it was all silent...

Then it erupted into a massive explosion before another thought could be uttered, like wave the darkness of the void bursting into a whirlpool of flames. It all became a burning red haze as flames ignited and spread over every inch of it simultaneously. Instead of pulling them in as it once was, the three of them were repelled outward by the blast, lost in a sea of red, super heated air and flames.

It seemed like the worst time, but at that moment gravity returned, and Zell landed on a hard, almost indistinguishable surface that was the ground. "Ufff!" A sense of direction returned to this place, something stable, a place to stand on, that seemed to be all that was left.

As soon as he wasn't being compressed by the black hole's gravity, Carbuncle let his body relax in Zell's arms, covered in sweat and panting for starved breaths. "Zell!" Carbuncle looked up with great surprised to find who was holding him. "How-How did you two get here!"

Zell could see it now, with the void not blocking it he noticed that there, thankfully, was still was something left of Carbuncle that the Shadow hadn't destroyed yet. Something, no matter how small, to look back to, so someone could move forward. Even if everything else was gone and empty, not to mention his mind was now like war zone. Things were starting to become visable, black spots that were like bruises, tares like lacerations...

'This place is...it's in bad shape.' "Bahamut brought me here. Are you alright?"

Carbuncle couldn't really describe what he was felling right now, it was confused, he felt so empty... so... so much like he'd been hurt in someway he couldn't explain... like there was nothing left, like nothing had ever been there. It was almost like his whole existence was.. wasn't one at all. "I...I...Hn..." He shook his head frantically, tears coming to his eyes. He couldn't even form a simple thought correctly... "Not...N-Not really."

Zell immediately pulled him closer and curled around him, trying to stop him from moving. At lest to get him to calm down, right now he was frantic and in disarray, he was so confused... 'I...I'm sorry.' "Carbuncle…"

Carbuncle stopped moving, though his voice still held that frantic disorganization that his movements and expressions held before."I'm… glad you guys saved me, I though I was done for." Everything was just so out of place, out of his hands, in complete confusion and he was like a ghost, unable to effect anything, to put it all in order or stop the confusion. It was horrible, even when he knew what was happening at this moment, that his best friend was holding him and that's all he needed to focus on.

He couldn't, he couldn't stop moving, he couldn't stop trying to put it all in order, but he couldn't! Why couldn't he! Why! Who was he! His name was Carbuncle! That's all he needed to focus on, just that! Just that, leave everything else for now, just don't panic!... Why didn't his ,mind seemed to be listening to itself?

"We had to find away, I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. I mean you've been with me through the biggest challenge of my life, I wouldn't have made it with out you."

"Yes you would have…your strong. You even broke through my invincible shield, that's the best I got." Carbuncle's frantic speech halted while his eyes shifted around in an uncontrollable twitching. He knew what he was saying, he knew what he was saying was right, but he didn't understand any of it, he knew all of it was logical, they were his logic. But it just didn't make sense. "I think that's the best I got, I mean it is, I think, yeah, I think, it should be, I know it is, I think I know, I don't know if it is, I do know!-"

Zell had never seen him like this, he'd never seen anyone like this. He'd never seen anyone like this. "Carbuncle!" Zell held him tightly as Carbuncle's rambling turned into wild flailing, Carbuncle was so...

"What's-, My head...!" Carbuncle couldn't stop, he knew he had the will power to contain himself but he couldn't seem to find any of it. His mind was empty, despite as hard as he tried to force a coherent thought into it nothing came but a disoriented blur. It was like he wasn't thinking at all, like it was set on auto pilot and going on it's own without his consent. All he could do was scream as loud as he could.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"Zell." Bahamut reached down and pried the struggling Carbuncle out of his arms. "Give him to me."

"Bahamut--"

"Just let me try." Bahamut spoke firmly, making it clear he would do this whether Zell was finished or not. He held Carbuncle tightly in his right arm, his strength forcing Carbuncle's struggling body to be still.

"Aahhhhh!"

"Carbuncle, listen to me. " Bahamut leaned down slightly to bring his face closer to Carbuncle, a calm, almost understanding expression on his face. "I know this is hard for you, but you have to listen."

Carbuncle's muscles tensed and locked, fighting the unexplained dizzy, claustrophobic feeling that made him fail around and scream. He bit down hard, drawing blood on his tongue, the pain was something that oddly enough held him calm down. "...B-Bahamut... I-I don't know anymore. I know there's something in my head I should remember, it's just not there! Every time I try to think my head just starts..." Carbuncle's body began to tremble, slight whimpers pushing from his pressed lips.

Bahamut was Junctioned to him, he could see, he could tell how Carbuncle felt. He couldn't focus, everything he tried to focus on was now just an indiscriminate white out. Bahamut understood the former weightlessnesses now and the general sense of having no direction, no backwards or forward, up or down. All of it was Carbuncle's in ability to think, any grounds for thought was gone with the weightlessness and space like undirection making thoughts drift away and become unstable.

Everything was gone, his memory, even the basic structure for thought, all that was left was a blank slate. The only thing that kept him from being infantile was the part of his mind the shadow hadn't destroyed, only most of it no longer had bearing. With out other thoughts and memories little of what was there had any logic, so when he tried to think about it... "Ahhhaaa!"

Bahamut tightened his hold, forcing his injured arm to rest on Carbuncle's head in an effort to keep him calm. "I know it's hard, but you have to focus."

"There's NOTHING THERE!" The small GF shouted. Tears started streaming from clinched eyes, pooling and dripping off of his chin. With a weak sob Carbuncle burred his head into Bahamut's arms, trembling harder.

"Well..." Bahamut paused, thinking about what to do, what to say to Carbuncle... What possible advice could he give who'd just had 90 percent of their mind corrupted and discarded. "Then... Focus on us. Me and Zell."

Carbuncle said nothing, he didn't scream, he didn't ramble incoherently, he just cried. It was a relief to Bahamut when he felt the GF's muscles easing and the weak sobs came easily. That was it, that seemed the only thing tat worked. They were here and now, they were junctioned to him, they were nearly physically inside of his head, how could he not. "...Who am I?"

"Your Carbuncle, you know that." Bahamut reassured him. He couldn't help but give a silent look towards Zell who gave a similar one back. "Hmm..."

'He lost his memory...' "I-I don't know if you remember what just happened but... just in case I didn't say it before, Thanks...I wouldn't have..." Zell dropped his head, down casting his eyes. He felt himself starting to cry, he couldn't help it... "I wouldn't have made it through or back from Time compression without you. If you and Bahamut hadn't been there…" Zell rubbed his eyes furiously before the tears could be seen. "And the only reason I got through your shield was because you helped me…When it looked like you made another barrier on top of the first one, you were really weakening it enough to let me through."

Carbuncle forced a smirk to form, a habit that still remained. "You saw that huh? Well I couldn't let that... thing...win with out a fight. " The smirk faded and Carbuncle's voice became serous, he could barely remember what had just happened to him...or anything about himself for that mater. Just that their was Zell, whom he knew nothing about anymore except that he'd he held strong feelings for and that he'd hurt. "Zell…I'm sorry for...what I did. What did I...? What did I..."

"…"

"I don't know...but I know I couldn't control my self-"

Zell shook his head, rubbing away the tears from his eyes again. "It wasn't your fault, the only reason this happened to you was because you went into time compression to save me."

"I… I love you... that's all I remember. I'm Sorry."

Zell pushed himself on to his feet and smiled, still holding his head down reluctantly. "I'm... just glad you don't hate me." Zell felt everything going blank as he junctioned weakened and Carbuncle's consciousness began to take over again.

"Thank you guys."

"You don't have to say that." Bahamut knelt down and released Carbuncle, letting his injured arm fall weakly to his side.

"What kind of friend wouldn't?" Zell nodded, feeling his mind drifting back into his body... Where ever it was.

_**If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

! - ! - !

This was the chapter before the last one, and I'd figure I put in one of my favorite songs as a good bye to Zell, Carbuncle and Bahamut. This one song fits Zell and Carbuncle, and Zell and Bahamut perfectly, funny it doesn't fit all three of them at the same time.

I'm not sure if they'll be in the Last Chapter so I had to do it I this one. And if you noticed, the first story was mainly about Squall and Ifrit with Zell and Bahamut as a side story. This one was about Zell and Bahamut (and Carbuncle) with Cho and Nida (And Seifer and Shadow) as a side story,

And keeping in tune with the like the last story, I'm finishing Complete Junction with the Side story taking the lead….only the side story seemed more like the main one…whatever. Anyway, I'm doing a sequel, again, and it's gonna be completely different. Trust me.

Thank you to everyone who read.


	23. Chapter 23: Complete Junctiion Finale

Chapter 22 Complete Junction Finale

! - ! - !

**_All the times_**by **_LSG_**

! - ! - !

At the opposite end of the salt lake was an opening, a cave, one that he was sure Shadow had slipped into."About time, I'm freezing my ass off." Seifer grunted. The snow was a gift and a curse, it allowed him to track Shadow since there was no way he'd be able to keep up with him on ice or any surface for that matter. But on the other hand he was freezing.

'Here goes nothing...' Seifer shifted sideways slipped into the narrow opening, finding his body was pressed oddly between two walls that'd been eroded open by the lake back when it's water level was higher. It was a tight fit, the ice floors made it hard for him to keep balance, but he managed to make it through to a larger opening that lay behind the small opening.

'Geez, how did he get through?' He was around the area where the salt lake's bed was transiting in to the city of Esther. Seifer could tell because the walls were lined with thick wires of every color frozen together in a sheet of ice, they were so thick that it seemed like wallpaper. These were connected to the octagonal panels that made a wall surrounding Esther that had hid the city behind an illusion. 'Where the hell did he go?'

**_Sincerely I can say  
That we should have met before today_**

Seifer walked down the ice coated steel floors of the cave that was more like a corridor leading into a large room, tall enough to span the gap of the cliff he'd climbed down to get to the lake bottom. He looked around, finding the wires from the last room were connected to large machinery in this one, all of them completely idle and silent who's function was unknown.

More importantly there was a stairwell built against the back wall only about 20 feet away, leading up to what seemed to be a control panel for the machines it was hard to tell because it was covered in a large void. The same type of void that led to Omega weapon in Ultimeinca's castle, there was some connection between Shadows and this null and empty space…

There he was, Shadow was standing in front of it, just staring. Seifer wasn't sure if Shadow had noticed him or not, with his hearing and sense of smell there was usually no doubt that he'd been noticed before he even entered the cave. But in his current state of mind, not to mention he was injured.

"Hey Spiky!" Seifer called out liberally, Shadow looked back. "What the hell are you doing?"

Shadow growled at him and turned back toward the void, as if that was all the prompting he needed he started to walk forward, about to go inside of it until he heard Seifer making his way up the stairwell. "If you come any closer I'll kill you."

**_But I'm (Mmm) happy to have this chance (This chance)  
To be with you and I'm gonna make the best of it  
_**

"Why the hell should I care," He shrugged discardingly. "I'm not afraid to die." He took another step upward but just as quickly as he took it he jumped back when a black spike emerged from the ground. 'The hell with it!' Seifer nodded to himself, with out a second thought he charged head first past the spike and ascended towards Shadow full speed. A line of them trailed just behind him but Seifer was barely fast enough to stay ahead long enough to get to the top.

He didn't stop through, Seifer jumped over Shadow and landed directly in his path. "Aright, What the hell are you doing?"

Shadow looked away from him, out of everyone else he'd encountered he couldn't seem to look him in the eye. "I'm leaving this world. I found away out and I'm using it."

"So that's it huh? The fearless and all powerful Shadow is running away?" Seifer laughed sarcastically. "It really doesn't speak well for you."

**_This is more than joy for me  
To be like a family_**

"I'm not running, there's no reason to stay here." Shadow growled. It was strange how his voice worked, he actually growled in an canine like manner but his words came out at the same time.

Seifer started to notice things about him like that…

"You really want to go back to that place you told me about. I mean it sounds like hell." With out explanation Seifer tossed away his gun blade and folded his arms.

Shadow looked down at the ground towards the gun blade. It didn't make sense, why would he do that? He was still in considerable danger, why would he discard any means to defend himself? "After what you did to me, I see that it's a lot easier to stay in my world away from you deceitful humans."

Seifer sighed in annoyment and stepped out of Shadow's way "You really think so? And what's so wrong with us humans…" Seifer paused for a moment, staring him strait in the eyes. He sounded almost hurt when he spoke this time. "...What's so wrong with me?"

_**And when we go our separate ways  
This feelin' will always stay**_

"…So naïve." Shadow snorted, "None of you can even see it, half of you humans waste your lives trying not to hurt one another while the other half is doing just that with out any regard. Naively thinking one, single thing matters, so they spend all of their existence as a slave to what they feel they're obligated to whether they like it or not. Whole organizations, nations, masses of people just blindly following one person who is less powerful and less deserving of the power they posses then most of their very followers. Tangled in each other's lies, rules and restrictions…Your slaves to it, you should be slaves to nothing but your own ambition."

He seemed as if he was actually thinking about it what was said to him, there was a small reprieve, a silence between them. "Slave to nothing but your own ambition…" Seifer looked up as if he'd just decided on something. "Alright then, I'm going with you."

"What?"

"If your going then I'm going with you."

"What?" Shadow drew back in surprise, he never expected that. "Y-You can't."

"Why not? I don't have any reason to stay here anyway, everyone hates me already." Seifer told him plainly. "I'll never be happy here. So I'm following my own ambition like you said."

"Do you realize where you'd be going?"

**_Look how long we've been around each other Look at all the times  
And we've finally found the chance to get together  
_**

"Doesn't matter, it's easier to stay away from this place and humans anyway right."

Shadow looked at him curiously, he still didn't understand it. "Why do you want to go?"

Seifer shrugged, "Your going. I'm going to be with you so I'd be alright."

"You can't hold your own against me, you'd be killed there before the day is over."

Seifer only looked at him, as if what he said didn't have any meaning. " I'm still going…" He smirked. "You know when Cho gets here he'd probably try and go after you."

_**Look at all the times we've seen each other  
Feels so good to be together Look at all the times we've wasted  
**_

Shadow never fully understood humans, the things they did, the things they said, how they came to hold dominance in this world. Maybe...he'd never understand them. "You tried to poison me, but yet you'd still follow me in to death…"

"You weren't poisoned, trust me, If I tried to kill you I wouldn't be going with you." Seifer told him, "I'm not stupid, even you know that doesn't make sense."

Shadow looked in to the void, staring at the swirling black, the exit. Then he looked back at Seifer, staring at him. He didn't seem deterred at all, not even by death... "No…I don't…want you to die." Shadow denied, shaking his head as if he still couldn't believe it.

"…. I'm still going with you."

With out warning Shadow suddenly jumped on to him, getting a startled gasp from Seifer as he was pinned down. "You can't go! I won't let you!"

"Why do you care so much!" Seifer yelled, letting himself be held down. "You said you'd kill me, why does it matter to you how I die?"

"Because I...I want yo stay with you! I don't want you to die!" Tears blurred the glowing red eyes, dripping down his cheek onto Seifer's face. "I...I have feelings, I don't know what they are but they seemed to bind me to you..."

**_Look how long we've been around each other We've been around  
And we've finally found the chance to get together _**

Seifer looked up at him with in confusion, watching as Shadow buried his face into his neck and start crying again. "I won't let you die." Shadow spoke a voice so depressed that it seemed surreal… for him at lest.

Seifer lifted his hands to Shadow's soft, vanilla scented fur and began rubbing his head with soft, caressing strokes. "Then stay here... with me."

"I didn't mean to hurt Cho…" Shadow admitted, something about this made him feel even worse then he already felt.

**_If you take a listen deeply, deeply  
You can hear the pride in my voice yeah_**

"I know, we figured that out already." Seifer scratched gently behind his ear. "Just quit running and come back."

"…" Shadow buried his face deeper, clinching his eyes tightly and inhaling Seifer's scent. He almost lost this, and if he did go back he knew he'd had regretted it for the rest of his life. "If you didn't poison me…what happened to me?'

"Hangover." Seifer told him simply, scratching Shadow's other ear while he ran his other hand through though the warm fur over his body. "That's what happens when you drink too much alcohol, I told you not to but you kept going anyway. Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"

"Why don't I remember most of that day then?"

"You passed out." Seifer smirked, look strait up at the ceiling. He allowed Shadow stay on top of him with no reason to move at the moment, and more importantly, he was warm. Shadow would probably never be like this again, Seifer didn't want to just push him away the one time he was. He didn't mind him being on top of him through, Shadow was actually light despite his size and it was just like being under a blanket.

"Looks like Seifer likes his new puppy, it's so cute."

**_It's not that hard to see that  
I'm happy about the way we came to be, be_**

Seifer tilted his head back to see the source of the voice, he saw none other than Squall standing above him. Not what he expected at all. "Fuck off I'm busy." Seifer really didn't care if anyone saw this, as long as Shadow was happy…and not making death threats.

Squall folded his arms and lent against the ice sheeted wall. "What are you doing?" Seifer asked, his voice hinting annoyment.

"Nothing. I'm just wondering what the hell is going on."

"Then leave. Go ask somebody else."

"Why? Want some alone time." Squall had to admit, it was fun messing with Seifer for a change

"As a matter of fact yes."

**_If I ever get the chance, again I know that  
We make sweet music together_**

Squall smirked and dropped Seifer's gun blade on the ground next to him, "Next time watch where your throwing things."

"Why are you down here anyway?"

Squall pointed to the void, "I wondered if you had something to do with it, since one of them is on top of you."

"Well don't puberty boy, I don't do that... anymore." Seifer grunted.

"What?"

"I don't need too do that anymore." Seifer watched an now somewhat normalized Shadow climbed off of him, shaking his head some what and blinking a few tears out of his eyes. He still hadn't said anything in the last few minutes, he didn't even seem to notice Squall.

Seifer did everything he did for a reason, for a goal, for a dream, for fillment...He didn't feel as empty anymore, he found a goal that he'd never knew he was looking for.

Squall looked over the two, Seifer more specifically. "Why did you help save the Garden? You _did_ try to destroy it"

"I don't know why I do half the things I do. You should know that by now, I don't even know why I helped Ultimeinca." It was just something to do, simple. He was restless, wanting to be something more then he was now, something big. So he wanted to do something big, be something bigger...and that happened.

Squall only shook his head and walked past the void, there was a ladder there leading to a hatch that came up somewhere in underground Esther. "Since you did help…" Squall started as he neared the top of the ladder and opened up the hatch. "You might still have a place in Balamb Garden. If you want it. _If_ you can handle yourself." Squall called down, closing the hatch and returning to Esther.

**_Look how long we've been (Oh...) Look how long we've had around each other  
(Look around, look around, look around, look around)  
And we've finally found the chance to get together_**

Seifer was just about ready to tell him off, he didn't want to take anything from Squall, even an offer. But then he thought about Shadow, which made him think of Cho, and Nida. "I might just take him up on that offer…"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Seifer emerged from the cave followed by a solemn Shadow, it was a completely dreaded atmosphere. But that mood was broken when Shadow ran in front of Seifer, sniffing around in the air alertly. "What is it?" Seifer asked. But Shadow didn't seem to hear him, the wolf only darted in the opposite direction leaving no word or explanation, charging across the ice field with out missing a steep.

'What the hell?' Seifer ran after him with out another thought, "Hey wait!" only to be blocked by a monster that fell in front of him, smashing through the ice and sending a splash of freezing water over him like a wave. 'What the hell!' Seifer took a stumbling step backwards while a large Hexadragon pulled itself out of the hole. "If that thing came from the air then…" And that's when he realized what it meant. "Damnit!"

Seifer wasted no time with it and ran past the dragon towards the other side of the lake where Cho and Nida were waiting for him. The sounds of more and more monsters dropping from the sky could be heard around him, at this rate all of the ice would completely break through.

**_Look at all the times we've seen each other  
Feels so good to be together (Since fate put us together once again)_**

"Fuck! Haste!" Seifer shouted, his body was covered in a momentary golden light and crest of a speeding clock bore over him for a second as the casted spell took effect. His body sprang forward in a huge burst of speed, he easily made it to the other side of the lake.

Seifer jumped in the air, flying over the large hole in the ice and sliding skillfully to a stop next to Nida and Cho.

Shadow was standing in front of them defensively, growling fiercely and baring his fangs.

Cho opened his eyes, shivering slightly from the newly realized cold of his settings. He looked as if he hadn't moved in awhile by the way his hair and body was covered in snow. Despite his injuries and lack of protection from the cold he seemed to be aware "What's going on?"

"Big monster problem, I guess they found us." Seifer pointed upward, most of the monsters could be seen coming toward them from all sides, all but behind because there was a wall there. "Something must have pissed them off, there coming after us like crazy." Seifer drew his gun blade and got ready to attack.

"No wonder." Nida slowly eased himself backwards against the wall beside Cho, there was no way he'd do anything but get in the way. "With everything that's been going on, especially Zell's fight with Carbuncle, they must have been agitated."

Shadow stepped forward, growling loudly, he seemed to be surprisingly protective. He was looking for some redemption for his previous actions, he was so guilty it made him sick to his stomach. He had to... he didn't know what he had to do, but he wasn't going to let any more harm come to these humans, these three special humans. '!" The golden aura of limit break washed over his pitch black fur and his body reverted in to a dark liquid. With a splash the liquid forced it self into the ice and disappeared under it.

**_Look how long we've been Look how long it's been around each other  
And we've finally found the chance to get together We finally got a chance to be together_**

"What the hell?" Seifer dropped down to his knees and looked into the snow covered ice, searching for any signs of the wolf. Not a good time to disappear… "Where did he go? What the hell was that?"

Cho suddenly reached forward and grabbed on to Seifer's waist, he was weak, and a small cry of pain came when he tried to pull him back. "Huh?" Seifer took a few steps back just to ask why Cho was so intent on moving him, before he could even think about it a wall of black spikes shot out of the ground on all sides around them. "What is this?"

"I believe-" Nida steaded himself against the wall, sure not to move. "-That this is Shadow's limit break."

Thousands of the black spears burst out of the ground behind the receding first line in a cascading chain reaction type way until the spike's had covered every inch of the lake.

_**Look at all the times we've seen each other (All of this time, all of this time)  
Feels so good to be together **_

Then they started randomly retracting, shooting up from the ice in a pulsating manner, making sure nothing survived. Every single one of those monsters that had jumped down from above, all wiped out by one attack.

After a few seconds or so, every spike fell back in to the ground leaving just the cold waters of the Salt Lake and destroyed chunks of floating ice that used to lay as one. Shadow emerged from the ground in the same fashioned he entered it, the regrouping black liquid retook his form.

Everything was surrounded in an eerie silence while the three humans watched a heavily panting Shadow slowly turn towards them. He took slow steps with a downcast face, reluctantly walking towards Cho. By the time he looked up he was standing close enough to see that the 14 year old, Cho was barely taller then himself, he could tell even when the boy was sitting. "Cho…" He looked away with a growl at himself, he was angry that he had to apologize, but he was more angry at himself about what he was apologizing for. So with damaged pride and depression he continued."I'm sorry. It was an accident, I didn't mean to-"

Cho smiled as he reached up and wrapped his arms around Shadow's neck, rubbing his head softly.

"It's ok." He reassured him, his voice was shaky from the cold and weak from the blood he'd lost, all of which was now frozen to his skin."It was worth it to have you back. Your not going to run anymore are you?"

Shadow shook his head like a remorseful child, he spoke as little as possible, guilty over all the trouble he just caused. The boy's expression dulled considerably when he saw how sad the wolf was, but it quickly changed into one of surprise when saw Shadow begin to smirk oddly. He'd never seen that look before.

**_Time is precious, we must take advantage  
Especially when we're often apart _**

"Seifer, what are you doing?" Nida asked, rubbing his head nervously.

Seifer was on top of Shadow, hugging him tightly with his face burred in the black fur, and Shadow seemed to be strong enough to stand with the extra weight. "I just got soaked in really, _really_ cold water." Seifer said forcefully. "I'm freezing my ass off, and he's the warmest thing here." He looked up at Nida exemptingly "Unless any of you have fur."

Nida just shook his head and shifted his eyes away anxiously. "…"

"If you were this warm I'd be doing the same thing, I like him better though." Seifer said, speaking his normal impish tone. He really wanted to move, but this felt much better then standing by himself soaking and being cold.

Nida let out a deep exhale with a chilled shutter that ran through his body."Can we please get the hell out of here?"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was a long and fridge accent up the cliff, the 4 of them made it to the top but not without some struggle, from there it was easy to get back down to the ship. On arrival they found Zell sitting on the bridge next to the side door with Carbuncle in his arms. Just by the first look Carbuncle seemed confused and quiet in an odd manner. Zell only held him, his head held down as he watched him, a saddened expression on his face.

Seifer even managed not to say anything provoking to him, he didn't much feel like it and neither did Zell.

"Carbuncle, are you alright?" Cho held on to his side, bitting down on his bottom lip numb from the cold as he knelt beside Zell and the green GF.

He didn't get a response. "…" Carbuncle only looked up at him questioningly, trying to remember who he was.

Cho realized it all from the silence and the expression he got in response, Carbuncle didn't even know who he was. "…It took his memory didn't it…" Cho realized soberly.

"Most of it…He can remember a few thing, but most of it's gone. " Zell told him, gently rubbing Carbuncle's head as if trying to reassure the small GF of something unspoken..

**_Baby, when you see, see me looking proud  
I'm only thinking of me and you _**

Then suddenly Carbuncle spoke. "Cho?" He asked, the boy's face managed to spark a few memories.

Cho smiled, "You remembered me." he watched Carbuncle's face become a little lighter.

"I don't know how I forgot at all." Carbuncle smirked. A small sense of pride came to him when he finally remembered something, everything didn't seem so overwhelmingly unstable as it did when he first regained conciseness only to wake up to an empty head.

"How much do you remember?" Nida asked.

Carbuncle looked up toward the sky, thinking hard. Who was this other person? "I remember a little bit of fighting Ultimeinca…everything else before that is just hazy fragments…and after that is to... I can't really remember anything, but... it was worth it." Carbuncle knew that if he had lost his memory simply to save Zell, then it was completely worth erasing 500 years of knowledge, erasing who he was. "But I remembered Cho…so other things might comeback... right?"

No one could get a chance to respond, everyone was thoroughly surprised when Bahamut landed next to Zell with out warning. "All clear."

Zell nodded "Thank you." Using the side of the ship he pulled himself on to his feet, letting his left hand fall lifelessly to his side while the other held the small GF close to him. He never wanted sleep more in his life, or a hospital.

Seifer looked around at the unusual group that had gathered here, only to dismiss the coinsurance that all of them would be here at once with a shrug. "Anybody else _really_ hungry?"

Nida generally was the responsible type, the one who said no to the reckless, irresponsible things. But by some form of mental and physical fatigue brought on by the events that had just transpired, he was just too tired to care. "I say we raid the Garden cafeteria before we give it back." He was to tired to even restrain himself from doing the irresponsible thing, simply because sometimes it was just easier.

**_Look at the times we've been together Look at how we've been around  
Now I have finally got the chance to be_**

"Nida? Did that just come from _you_?" Cho was genuinely surprised, even enough to question if Nida was alright.

"Hmm…Must be your influence." Nida opened the side door, it was heavier then he remembered, and went inside.

"If we're going to do that we might as well go a step forward and keep the Garden." Seifer said with a light snicker. "Go big or don't go at all."

"The worst thing is that I think he's serious. " Zell shook his head and headed inside the warmth of the ship behind Nida and Cho with Bahamut following closely behind. "Got your appetite back?"

Carbuncle nodded "Yeah."

Seifer looked down at Shadow, smiling as he scratched behind Shadow's ear again. "Don't do that again."

Shadow shook his head "I wont…Damnit. Your trying to train me like a dog." He realized offensively.

"Not really, You just wouldn't be as much fun that way."

"You humans are confusing."

"Your one to talk."

"I'm not confusing."

"Did you just forget about that last little episode you had, that was confusing as hell."

The red eyes blinked a little as he looked up at Seifer "I lost trust in you, I though you tried to kill me. I ran because I didn't want to hurt you."

**_Look at the times we've been apart  
Though I have never had the chance to meet you_**

"Why not? You seem vindictive enough, not like you had a problem doing it before."

"I couldn't because I've grown to familiar with you."

"Huh?"

"You have to be the most intriguing thing I've ever met."

"Well…" Seifer started walking up the flight stairs leading inside, "You're the only person that seems too. Thank you…for loving me."

Shadow looked up at him with more confusion, that moment of softness was completely unexpected from someone like Seifer. Something no one had ever seen before, and Shadow was the only person he showed it to. Shadow decided at the moment, not to give up trying to understand humans, there was so much to them. They were so unpredictable, they never seemed to do what he expected them too even if it was beyond logic and reason...Maybe, that's what made them so strong, these feelings they had had that made them turn against logic, that made them able to do things in instances that defied logic. Maybe that was what allow them to create things that where beyond the imagination, and do things every day that could give life and take it away just as quickly. Maybe that was it...

Shadow didn't understand humans.

He understood it even less when Seifer's serous expression changed back into his usual cocky grin as if he didn't just say what he'd said. As if he didn't reveal some tidbit of the feelings he had inside of him.

"The mighty warrior Seifer, has a soft side?"

"Fuck you."

"Maybe later." Shadow grinned "But I get to do you first."

Seifer shook his head, changing subjects expectantly when his stomach began growling. "Ever had a hot dog?"

Hot dog, what was a hot dog? "No."

**_Look how long we've been around each other  
And we've finally found the chance to get together_**

"Then come on."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

This song was also one of my favorites, and it described this last chapter perfectly! I'm happy with the sequel, 131 pages and 57824 words not including this part. (At lest the unrevised version was, this newer version was 206 pages) Since this is the end of the Junction series I have to say in retrospect the first one was crap. I'm going to go back and correct it when I get done with a few other stories.

Shadow was my favorite person, I never planed on Seifer jumping in but when inspiration strikes… Even after Seifer became a big part in the story I didn't plan on him or Shadow. But anyway, thank you for reading and putting up with my many errors. I'm devoid of a Beta as you saw.

Well anyway thank you for reading and reviewing .

Oh and there is a sequel up, Final Fantasy 8: Soul Junction. Go read it, Now!

Truly yours

SDI Hypervelocity


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